The massive, widespread and horrific sexual abuse of children by Irish clergy wasn't damning enough to rouse the Catholic Church out of its usual defensive stance.

In an unusual move, Pope Benedict XVI met with every Irish bishop in Rome, to listen to their comments and presumably chide them on the scandal that has shaken the faith of so many Irish people and others around the world. In a not-so-unusual move, the actual final result has been....nothing.

The Vatican released a statement Tuesday saying the decades-long abuse and cover-up by every level of the Irish Catholic Church was "a heinous crime." The New York Times has the entire text, which contains the usual wishy-washy comments such as describing the sheltering of these criminals, the cover-ups of their crimes, and the bullying of victims into silence as merely "the failure of Irish Catholic authorities for many years to act effectively...."

In fact, the Irish Catholic Church did act very effectively; unfortunately it was effective in actively permitting the crimes and protecting the abusers. No one new has been fired, no one has been demoted, and no structural changes have been put into place to prevent such crimes from happening again. Indeed, no changes whatsoever have resulted, other than accepting the resignation of one bishop so implicated in the scandal that even the Church realized he had to go.