Focusing on the punishment of the abusers is the wrong approach. The Church would be most effective in setting up a process to prevent any such scandals. The Holy Spirit, through St. Paul 's letter to Timothy, reveals the qualifications for selecting priests. The most crucial is that a priest must be married; it is not an option. "For how can a man who does not know how to manage his family manage the church of God?" The Church has resisted, neglected or denied this mandate for about a thousand years; the rampant sexual abuses didn't just happen all of a sudden. The pope is not the only one late to the party.