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Press TV has conducted an interview with Mark Dankof, political commentator, San Antonio, about the pope announcing he will punish priests who sexually abuse children after meeting with some of those abused.

Press TV: We know the previous Pope was under a lot more criticism, he was even accused of ignoring, himself personally, cases of child abuse, but what do you think about the way Pope Francis has dealt with the situation?

Dankof: I’m a cynic on this admittedly. I agree with Barbara Blaine the president of an organization called SNAP – Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests - who has basically said that this is a lot of PR window dressing, that it doesn’t really change anything in the way in which systems are conducted in the Roman Catholic Church.

There are several things that the Pope would have to do and state publicly before I would be convinced that he was moving in a better direction.

Press TV: We’re hearing he has strengthened the Vatican’s laws against child abuse. Now he’s saying that the clergy who have committed these offenses should be punished. Can you tell us what kind of action he’s speaking about?

Dankof: I think the best thing the Pope could do to underscore these pedophilia-oriented priests are going to be punished, but also indicate the willingness of the Roman Catholic church to do what is standard in the Protestant groups, at least in the United States, and that is to cooperate with a secular authority.

Where there is credible evidence that a Roman Catholic priest has committed sexual crimes, that’s not simply an in-house matter for the Roman Catholic Church.

The officials of the Roman Catholic Church who’ve had these kind of credible reports brought to them should be involving secular authorities - secular law enforcement authorities, secular judicial authorities in the various places where they reside to get to the bottom of this sort of thing and to cooperate with secular authorities in any way that they can.

The Pope has not yet indicated if the Roman Catholic Church is willing to do that either in the United States, Europe or elsewhere.

Press TV: What do you think are the root causes of this problem and has that root cause been addressed and are we going to see at least a diminishing of this trend?

Dankof: I am a Lutheran Pastor and of course Martin Luther was critical of a Roman Catholic Church in the 16th century over these whole issues of sexual perversion among the clergy.

I think the best thing the Roman Catholic Church can do in this situation is to allow priests to marry and to lead more normal lives like the rest of humanity tends to lead.

I think you also have a situation where because of this the Roman Catholic Church frankly according to Randy Engel the author of the book The Right of Sodomy would say it is an epidemic in the Roman Catholic Church a predominantly homosexual pedophiliac breed.

And until the Roman Catholic Church begins to incorporate more normal lifestyles for their clergy I think there’s going to be a disproportionate amount of this sort of thing going on.