royal commission about catholic priests sexually abusing children

Today PM Gillard announced a Royal Commission into child sexual abuse by catholic clergy & others.
On Lateline Emma Albarichi interviewed two people: Frank Brennan catholic theologian & a Newcastle chief Inspector of police.
Brennan tried to be positive about his church; asked if celibacy was an issue, he said no elected bishop in oz would agree.
IE once part of the status quo they toe the line. He described a visit to the Vatican; next to him a US priest id’d a bloke next to Pope Benedict as Card Law, he said if that guy was back home he’d be in jail for hindering the arrest of offending priests. Brennan himself said that children had been sacrificed, the church had put itself first. The church in oz has not proposed one offending priest for prosecution.
The chief Inspector who is resigning after having spoken out about a child abuse case made similar comments. He quoted an Italian cardinal who said: we have beautiful churches but they are empty. Mr Lee said that younger priests are critical of the celibacy issue, critical of the old boy hierarchy; he himself said lots of priests had joined the church because they would have access to children. Should we ask if they themselves were groomed at a young age? Is it an organisation perpetuating its abuse generationally?
Look at the old boy network: at St Mary’s South Brisbane two priests and in Melbourne another were defrocked for making changes to the way mass is said, and to being more inclusive of gay people; you can get defrocked for these changes but not for pedophilia. The Rockhampton bishop knows one of his priests is a pedophile but he puts up with that, it does not merit defrocking.

Meanwhile, in the Victorian state parliamentary investigation a researcher noted that abusive catholic priests got lighter prison sentences than other offenders. Chief Inspector Lee was asked why police were reluctant to investigate the catholic church? Was it that they knew the church would close ranks? Should we add to that the “spiritual” influence exercised by church leaders, an atmosphere that they were above temporal law. Was this getting pedo priests lesser sentences, or in the case of Len O’Rourke having his sentence dismissed entirely?