If you haven't heard already, on August 14th a report was released which revolved around a 70-year cover-up of more than 300 Roman Catholic Priests in sexually abusing children in Pennsylvania. There have been over 1,000 identifiable victims already, and it is likely that there are hundreds and hundreds more who either have lost records or are too afraid of speaking up.

This report is the largest government investigation into child sexual abuse to date, and the details are not pretty.

"[The report] catalogs horrific instances of abuse: a priest who raped a young girl in the hospital after she had her tonsils out; a victim tied up and whipped with leather straps by a priest; and another priest who was allowed to stay in ministry after impregnating a young girl and arranging for her to have an abortion."

It is not only despicable but also evil for these community leaders to abuse their power to in-turn abuse children. It's a shame that these church leaders from Pennsylvania, who are supposed to be practitioners of good, had spread so much pain to innocent children.

This is obviously reminiscent of past child sex scandals that the Catholic Church has been involved in. Such as in 2002, when (now former) priest John J. Geoghan was found to have sexually abused more than 130 children. Geoghan's actions were hidden and he was protected by the Church, which caused rightful outrage. Or a report from 2004 which found over 4,450 priests have sexually abused children from the years 1950 to 2002. There are other accounts, but this has been by far the worst.

There was even a recent drama documentary made about the Church's sexual abuse scandals, called "Spotlight (2015)." It is unfortunate that the Church, which is an important and influential institution for many, has this really terrible track record with the most innocent people on the planet; children.

In response to the recent report, Pope Francis published a letter. In the letter, he sympathizes with the children and the overall Catholic community. He starts the letter out quoting Corinthians, "If one member suffers, all suffer together with it (1 Cor 12:26)." While I agree with that, it seems that Pope Francis has to maybe do more than just being disappointed in these priests and sympathizing with the abusees.

Things should change on a larger scale. These sexual abuses have been going on for almost 70 years all over the world by people apart of the Church. Something needs to change. Carol Costello of CNN wrote "Pope Francis, listen to your church. If there ever was a moment in our faith's history to begin to make things right, that time is now. This is the time to eject every church official found guilty of abuse or a cover-up.

This is the time to widen your talent pool. Maybe even consider allowing priests to marry or women to become priests. There is nothing other than tradition and a chorus of conservative voices in your ear that tells us these changes cannot be made. Pope Francis, the time is now."

I couldn't agree more.