AFTER so many years of damaging headlines and vows to redress the sins of the past, it's clear there is still a long road ahead for the Catholic Church to ever start cleansing the stain of its horrendous history of child sexual abuse.
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The conviction of Cardinal George Pell - Australia's most senior Catholic and the third most senior Catholic in the world - on charges of sexually assaulting two boys has simply confirmed in the eyes of most observers that the church's problems reach right to the very top.
That conviction is the subject of appeal and so it will again be up to the courts to decide that outcome.
But even away from Cardinal Pell, there remain significant concerns over how the church hierarchy has responded to the most awful crimes committed on the most vulnerable by men acting in its name.
One of the worst offenders was former St Stanislaus' College priest Brian Joseph Spillane, who is currently serving a 13-year sentence for offences against nine St Stanislaus' students between 1974 and 1990. It's likely there were many more.
One of Spillane's victims was Damien Sheridan, who has previously spoken out loudly and bravely about his abuse at the hands of Spillane as a homesick boarder at St Stanislaus' College in 1985.
Now he speaking out just as bravely about the refusal of the Vincentian Catholic order to accept responsibility for Spillane's abuse - despite Pope Francis's vow at a Vatican summit that the church would give survivors "all the support they need".
"Why is anyone allowed to write 'alleged offence' in a legal document months after there's a conviction, and then for that to be sent to someone like me who's suffered the consequences of that abuse for decades?" Mr Sheridan asked.
"I've made clear the harm done to me and they respond in a way that can only increase that harm."
It is not good enough.
It may not be fair that the whole Catholic Church has been tarnished by the actions of a [significant] minority, but the church must still do better with its response.
The church has lost the trust of so many of the faithful and can only hope to start rebuilding its reputation by genuinely seeking to redress the sins of the past.
The response must truthful, compassionate, contrite and honest.
Countless victims deserve no less.
