(RNS) The first public statement by a pope was a denial.

When things were going well, St. Peter was right there at Jesus’ side. But once things went south, Peter denied him. Not just once. Three times.

Today, the Catholic hierarchy seems to be in group denial about the international implications of the ongoing clergy molestation scandal. Some are pointing fingers — at the media, at Jews, and at the victims. Some are arguing that everything was done “correctly” and “according to canon law.” Others are simply oblivious to the dangers and the damage that’s been done.

Pope Benedict XVI has actually done more to staunch the wounds than his predecessor ever did. But the Vatican’s Keystone Kops approach to public relations has only made things worse.

Vatican Radio reporter Chris Altieri recently said that in 1985, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Benedict XVI) sent a “form letter” to a California bishop who wanted to defrock a molester-priest. Incredibly, Altieri then reports a Vatican lawyer saying that Ratzinger’s office “was merely attempting to determine whether the conditions for laicization (removal from the priesthood) had been obtained.” The lawyer even said Ratzinger told the bishop he should “use as much paternal care as possible” — Vatican-speak for “it’s the bishop’s problem.”

Excuse me. Where is the outrage? Where is the compassion? Where is the honest recognition that the predatory priest — any predatory priest — needed to be taken off the street immediately and forever?

It’s not only about the California case, in which the priest was eventually jailed, defrocked, and released to the community as a registered sex offender. It is about the hundreds upon hundreds of cases around the globe where bishops didn’t get it, or, if they did, Vatican staffers delayed and denied as institutional septicemia bloomed.

So now the Catholic Church universal is in a pickle. The people of God (including me) do not understand the continued corporate denial of the simple fact: we are talking about criminal behavior. These men committed crimes. First you take criminals off the streets. Then you do the paperwork. The new Vatican guidelines say bishops should cooperate with civil law — but many countries do not have mandatory reporting requirements.

I know there have been false accusations, and that gold-digging lawyers see deep ecclesial pockets they can pick, and that’s wrong. I don’t think the Vatican should have to hock the Pieta to pay damages.

But I do think there are ways to restore the world confidence, if not in the human institution of the church, at least in the gospel message it attempts to present. You begin by telling the truth: from top to bottom, the men in charge screwed up, and most of them should resign — or be fired.

Papal spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi got it half-right when he said the hierarchical church “must continue to implement, decisively and truthfully, the correct procedures” within canon and civil law. That’s nice, but where did the “continue” part come from? The pope’s spin doctor-in-chief will no doubt take any media bullet for his boss, but Benedict has to admit the mess and address the damage caused by continued denials.

If pastors who covered up for priest-molesters are not removed, that, too, is a denial of Christ.

If Vatican staffers who delayed priest-molester cases are not removed, that, too, is a denial of Christ.

If bishops who serially transferred priest-molesters are not removed, that, too, is a denial of Christ.

This is not “petty gossip” as some in the hierarchy believe. This is real.

(Phyllis Zagano is visiting professor of theology and religion at St. Leo University in Florida and author of several books in Catholic studies. She also holds a research appointment at Hofstra University in New York.)