"We will review them together. It is hard to turn one of our own over to the authorities. But I will not tolerate murderers among our priests, no matter what their rank. We have had enough of them in our history."

"They have wandered down the path of darkness, Your Eminence. They believe that theirs is a righteous battle to save the world. It is hard to deny that the world has a lot wrong with it."

"I know what they believe," said the Pope softly but firmly. "We all want to save the world. But the ends do not justify the means. Our Lord wants us to bring love into the world, not hatred, tolerance, not spite. If we could only behave more like the Good Samaritan, Seamus. The world order will become a fractal nightmare unless we become the glue that binds it together. At least among Christians."

"All noble sentiments, Holy Father, but these dossiers are from practically every country in the world; at least, every country that has a significant Catholic population seems to have its extremists. But I'm also sure that what is in these data cubes is but the tip of an iceberg." He coughed politely. "There really are a lot of dossiers to go over."

"What have we done wrong, Seamus?"

"I don't think we've done anything wrong. The world is a much more complicated and dangerous place than it was a hundred years ago, in spite of the communist threat back then. The economic world is one without boundaries yet the old ethnic and tribal hatreds are stronger than ever because people feel more threatened."