After a long and intense two day meeting with Pope John Paul in the Vatican, US cardinals last night announced they will introduce a special process to expel paedophile priests.
This was a landmark occasion, which heard a clear statement by the Pope that "there is no place in the priesthood for those who would harm the young", which he described as a crime and a sin. It has broken through the atmosphere of silence and denial hitherto marking the Vatican's approach to this issue.
Expectations were high about the extraordinary meeting in Rome. Convened suddenly last week following a whole series of sex abuse scandals, it has highlighted the deeper problems of legitimacy and authority faced by the Roman Catholic church in the United States. Poor leadership has been compounded by a systematic failure to address the scandals openly and by plain evidence that many of them have been covered up to protect the church's own interests.
There is genuine and growing anger among the 64 million Catholics in the US about this. It is being expressed in falling church attendances, reduced clerical recruitment and declining revenues. Looking forward, the prospect of many more cases being taken by those who have suffered abuse and the likelihood that expensive legal settlements will be necessary show this is no passing crisis, but rather one that goes to the very heart of the US church's vocation and structures. And since the US church is the most wealthy in the world, its financial troubles affect the Vatican.
This meeting became a focus for concern throughout the Catholic Church - not least in Ireland - given the proliferation of clerical and lay sex abuse scandals. It was more consultative than disciplinary, more to do with its governance than with individual misconduct. But given Pope John Paul's leadership style more will be expected now from the leading Vatican figures to whom he delegates church administration, and from national church leaders.
Church members will expect clearer guidance on such questions as how future abuse allegations will be handled, on church-state cooperation against suspected abusers, on how contrition can be offered to victims and compensation arranged for them. The Vatican has clearly set its face against any move to change celibacy rules or to open up the question of women priests. In the longer term it is likely to find these issues cannot he held at bay and may come to be seen as the most rational way to renew the church.