Back in the 1970s, when I was a student at St. Augustine’s in Hartford, we had an active pedophile in Daniel McSheffrey, who was a priest there. McSheffrey was loved by parents and school officials but feared by my classmates, as he should have been. Once you were summoned to his office, you were his next victim. McSheffrey had a lot of victims.

Now the archdiocese, after almost fifty years, wants to say “sorry about that” [Dec. 16, courant.com, “Archdiocese of Hartford announces it will release names of accused pedophile priests, conduct probe into decades of abuse cases”].

Where in their vocabulary does one find the phrase “a little too late”? Is it when their pews are empty? Does it happen when contributions are down? How about when the mass schedule has gone from five masses on a Sunday down to two or fewer?

Some will say that we must forgive and let go of our anger. There will be hordes of people who will say we need to heal. I say put them out of business. As unrealistic as that sounds, it’s really not a bad idea at all.

It’s unforgivable that the Catholic church moved these priests around for decades, knowing what they were accused of. Let’s face it -- the only reason the church is on a “sorry about that” tour is because it has no other choice.

Sometimes “sorry” just doesn’t do it.