Archbishop Tomasi’s failure to give simple, direct answers to Elena Curti’s pithy and rele­vant questions (“One case of abuse is one too many”, 25 January) is deeply disappointing. They mirrored exactly the hesitations and ­vacillations of the Vatican for most of the past 40 years of revelations of clerical abuse of children. To take refuge in statements such as “certain things are not immediately possible”, “men and women have been influenced by … the public culture” and “moving very effectively with guidelines, with directives, with change of internal legislation in the refuge” is to flirt with denial. The facts are simple: some priests abused children. Effective legal and ecclesiastical action was not taken by t