There are some difficulties in this column, first Are Monastries so willing to receive clergy who have sexually offended? This idea is based on the old "Penitential monasteries", which do not exists anymore. In some countries in Europe Monastic major superiors have voices their worries with having those men among them. To have work for many years as a psychotherapist for sex offenders, I know that some of them are very difficult to monitor, and first of all need more therapy than penances. How can you ask a community with an average age of let say 70 to monitor such problematic personalities? Secondly, though the procedure for bishops or superiors mishandling cases is in place on paper, it has not yet being put in practice, and apparently there are some resistances to it. So there are the official talks, but as Marie Collins point out there are different stories behind the closed doors. But otherwise I have no objection for mercy as long as justice for the victims is not sacrificed.