Historically, civilized societies have imposed the most severe penalties on the most egregious crimes. Sadly, that's not the case with the Catholic Church.

The most severe penalty in the Catholic church is excommunication. It's when a Catholic is basically kicked out of the church. Yet as best we can tell, not a single pedophile priest anywhere in the world has been excommunicated.

Burke has excommunicated more individuals than almost any other Catholic bishop. He has excommunicated almost a dozen parishioners at St. Stan's parish. Yet he hasn't excommunicated a single pedophile priest.

If he excommunicates people for non-criminal behavior, he should also excommunicate them for criminal behavior. If he excommunicates people for violating his edicts, he should also excommunicate them for violating our children. If he excommunicates people for saying wrong things, he should excommunicate people for doing wrong things.

The second most severe penalty in the church is defrocking. It's when a priest is basically kicked out of the priesthood (yet remains a Catholic). Yet, as best we can tell, Burke has defrocked only a handful of local archdiocesan pedophile priests (Robert Yim, Michael S. McGrath, James Gummersbach, Bryan Kuchar, Donald Straub, James Biene).

And Burke refuses to defrock or discipline any of the dozens of pedophile priests from other dioceses or religious orders who move here or molest here or work here. Worse, he pretends he's powerless over them.

He aggressively defrocks Fr. Bozak at St. Stan's, even though Bozak is a Springfield diocesan priest. He aggressively excommunicates a German woman who says she's a Catholic bishop. (Neither of them have been found guilty or even been accused of crimes.) Yet he claims he can do nothing about pedophile priests from other dioceses or religious orders.

The list includes pedophiles who are Jesuits (Jack Campbell) and Marianists (Daniel Triulzi). It includes predators from New York (Romano Ferraro), Dallas (Kenneth Roberts), and Joliet (Fred Lencyzcki).

All of these predators either abused elsewhere and were sent here or molested here but are reportedly supervised by other church officials. Some of them have actually hurt kids here.

But again, if Burke can excommunicate a legitimate Springfield priest and a disputed German priest, he can and should discipline and defrock pedophile priests from religious orders and other dioceses who live, work or molest here.

Burke can claim to care about kids. But if he imports predators, tolerates predators and ignores predators, he sends a very different message. His actions and his words don't match. His actions suggest he cares more about his authority and his funds than about our kids.