"Nothing to Hide"?

Okay, but do they understand what achieving this requires? It can't just be empty promises or simply decreed-from-on-high attitude changes. The reasons these things existed in the first place are structural:

The Roman Catholic Church, embroiled in scandal over waves of paedophile priest scandals, must show it has "nothing to hide," the Vatican spokesman said Saturday.

"This is the time for truth, transparency and credibility," Federico Lombardi said at a conference on digital communication.

"Secrecy and discretion are not values that serve the majority," he said, Italian news agencies reported. "We need to be in a position to say we have nothing to hide."

As long as there is a facade of "mandatory" celibacy, however, the hierarchy will have something to hide.

As I've said before, the cover-ups were specifically cover-ups about sex. The types of things covered-up indicate that they weren't just trying to save the Church's public image in general (there are lots of bad Catholics and everyone knows it)...but specifically the illusion of the clergy as chaste.

And you're not going to have transparency as long as seminarians are formed in such an environment that their primary socialization is with other seminarians. That is bound by nature to create a relatively closed society among the clergy and distance them from the laity.

If you have nothing to hide, then why keep such a tight leash on seminarians? Why not let priests have families? To be honest, all these controls on priests' interpersonal relationships make it seem like you're trying to hide something...