In February Pope Francis will host a first-of-its-kind summit on preventing priest sex abuse, amid growing criticism over his handling of cases dating back decades. Dr. Charles Reid, professor of law at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota, says it’s been a long time coming and now is the time to get church hierarchy all on the same page

The summit, unprecedented in scope and scale, is generally regarded as the most significant effort so far by the Vatican to address the global priest sex abuse crisis.