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When I listened to broadcaster Nicky Campbell talking on this programme on Thursday about being sexually abused as a schoolboy, I was struck by the atmosphere he described at his Scottish private school. He said he was one of many boys attacked by two teachers who both physically and sexually abused children supposed to be in their care. Not only did the boys know what was going on, but adults did too – and so the abusers continued, without being disciplined, sacked or reported to the police. Campbell described it as omerta – that code of silence used by the Mafia. This culture was all too familiar to me because I have been reporting for years on child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. The survivors I have spoken to, who endured attacks at the hands of priests they met through church, and sometimes at school by clergy and lay teachers, also mentioned the conspiracy of silence that surrounded these actions. Like Nicky Campbell, many of the survivors I talked to finally spoke about their trauma years after the abuse happened. Sometimes they felt ashamed, despite being the victims, and for years buried what happened because it was the only way they could cope. Their courageous speaking out has pressured the Catholic Church into improving the safeguarding of children and vulnerable people in recent years. Some of its bishops have tried to learn about abuse by talking to victims. One of them recently said to me: “It’s the culture we have to change”, meaning making victims, not the clergy, a priority. But there is something else that might have to change. Christianity has always advocated forgiveness – but were bishops once too quick to forgive abusers, who promised never to do it again, yet turned out to be serial offenders? In the prayer that he left his followers, the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus said: forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. It is up to survivors as to whether they can ever forgive such terrible crimes against them. Making them feel they must is abusive too. Meanwhile the Church offers forgiveness in the name of God, but it surely can only be offered to someone who shows they are repentant by amending their life. Amid talk of a changing culture and of forgiveness, something else needs to be mentioned. Nicky Campbell has called for the teacher he and others have accused of abuse to be extradited from South Africa to face trial. In other words, he is asking for justice. In the Christian Scriptures, forgiveness and mercy are entwined with justice. The focus has long been on forgiveness – but it must be on justice too.