Indeed, even some of Benedict's harshest critics concede that abuse cases have been handled better since then, even if they say they still believe there is a long way to go.
At best, harm reduction is an approach that concedes drug abuse prevention is impossible.
Conceding that abuse victims had reason to be skeptical about promises from the church, she said: "Many people may feel that because we are coming out of this meeting positive that somehow it is a p.r. exercise and we are being sucked in and manipulated in some way.
As he readily concedes, substance abuse affected his professional, as well as personal, decline.
However, friends concede that the abuse Mr. Kelly said that he suffered at the hands of Mr. Hanley certainly played a role.
She concedes that abuses by Iraq's security forces have been getting worse even as her ministry has been trying to re-educate the Iraqi police and army to respect detainee rights.
It does grudgingly concede that "in some cases, abuse was accompanied by leadership failure at the tactical level," but the report absolves anyone of rank, in keeping with the investigation's spirit.
Although church officials say they have policies in place to prevent abuse, they also concede that some bishops are now going to be compelled to re-evaluate such policies and to consider removing priests who could pose risks to children.
Critics say the problems are widespread in the European Union, where there are few checks on the quality of regional programs — known as structural and cohesion funds — which, officials concede, are more vulnerable to abuse even than the bloc's notoriously generous farm subsidies.
Once in a while, advocates concede, such plans may be abused.
Yunus does, however, concede that some organisations are abusing the microcredit system for profit.
