It's easy to see the Vatican is wildly inconsistent.

The Catholic laity doesn't know what priests the Vatican is being asked to sanction. They don't know what the bishops are recommending. We don't know why some get no sanctions, some get minimal sanctions and some get removed from the priesthood. If sanctions are imposed, it is often months before it's announced. And there seems to be absolutely no monitoring of these prayer and penance guys.

Tremendous secrecy is still the norm. Any external peek into how it works is very rare and very valuable.

In all the years I've been doing victims' advocacy, I've never had a victim call me and say they were relieved and gratified that the man that sodomized them is supposed to pray more now.

Church officials will vehemently deny they still reassign these men. But the sad truth is that they do.

You have a subject who's lunging at them with a knife... swinging wildly at them and they're fearing for their life. They had no other choice but to resort to lethal force.