I read with interest the review (10 May) of my book Betrayed: The English Catholic Church and the Sex Abuse Crisis, by Eileen Shearer, former head of the Catholic Office for the Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults. She says that I conclude that the “only substantial achievement” of the last decade is that allegations are now reported to the police. Not so: I list the others, including extensive criminal-records checking. But I focus on the issue of reporting to external agencies because it is in that area that the Church has failed so badly in the past, and most importantly because the Vatican continues to resist mandatory external reporting. On the issue of progress generally, I simply report the views of child protection officials who spoke to me privately: the Chur