We never deny our antipathy to the Roman Catholic Church. We reject teachings and practices which are alien to what was believed as the faith of the Christian church at its beginnings. We are Protestants, Bible-based, Christ-centred, in what we believe. The apostolic gospel is our heritage, and our indebtedness is to the Protestant Reformers who from the scriptures spelled out all that is necessary to be believed by those who call themselves Christians. Recognising the world-wide power and influence of the Roman Catholic Church, we see the loyalty and devotion of our neighbours to their church, and regret that our Protestant people so often lack that deep sense of commitment to their churches. In spite of what has been said about sectarianism - we have utterly condemned it constantly as a festering sore on this society - we enjoy the friendship of many Roman Catholics and have every reason to believe that that fellow feeling is gladly reciprocated. We say this in the wake of horrific media disclosures on sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic priests over a half-century. The Church has been shocked to the core with the large number of proven cases of gross sexual misconduct against these priests. It is not our intention to make comparisons or pass judgements. We have no justification for that, for other churches have had their sexual predators. It is to express our sympathy with all those who suffer from crimes committed on them. We join with all those who utterly condemn such abuse and cruelty. It is cruelty and cruelty takes many forms and they are always sinful and must be punishable. We support every effort now being made to stamp out this evil with its life long consequences for victims. We expect the lawful authorities in church and state to concentrate on the eradication of all such criminal activities. Aware as we are that youngsters sometimes live in homes and houses where the ill-treatment of children is an attitude of adults, we ask people to do whatever is necessary to ensure the protection and safety of our children. The early years of our lives are so important to us that it is grief to us if when we look back on them it is with regret and anger because of the way we were treated by those who had the care of us. The great benefit to very many of us is that we look back with pleasure to the days of our childhood and youth and express our heartfelt indebtedness to those parents, teachers and friends who treated us so well that we remain forever thankful to them. There is no better way to estimate the quality of life in a society than to see how it treats its children.