joining me tonight, barbara blaine, the president and founder of snap. barbara, thank you for your time tonight. i think we hear around the country from a lot of people saying that the time for apologies are over with, that the catholic church needs to fix this. can they do it? >> well, not with their current processes and guidelines and status. i mean, for any change to happen we need some structural changes and we need to see action. they're big on lofty words and not very -- they just don't take the kind of simple steps that could really protect kids across the globe today. >> your group took a big step today. s.n.a.p. says the wholy see is in violation of a children's righties -- or rights treaty, which was signed back in 1990. what are you hoping for the u.n. to do? >> well, we hope that the u.n. will use its influence and power to final ly ly hold top-ranking vatican officials accountable for this cover-up and concealment and then the enabling of the sex crimes against children. i mean, this is -- it's a significant moment because it's the first ti

he leaves people still demanding justice for children abused by clergy, people like barbara blaine of the abused children's support group. >> he offered lofty statements. he apologized to victims. he met with victims. and yet, we haven't seen even one bishop punished or even one church employee go without a day's pay for the cover-up of these sex crimes. >> reporter: the cardinals gathering here now have a damage-control challenge-- how to provide believable assurances that the era of abuse is over. it's a challenge recognized by new york cardinal timothy dolan. >> sadly, tragically, we leaders of the church have often given people reasons not to have trust in the church anymore. so to reclaim that credibility is a big call for us. >> reporter: and even before they get down to the business of choosing the next pope, the cardinals have the business of the vatican itself to sort out. benedict preferred spiritual matters. the acknowledged mess of the church's administration and finances was not a priority. ( applause ) benedict was a respected thinker, a teacher. official vatican spokesm

barbara blaine, thanks for your time tonight. i appreciate it. that's "the ed show." i'm ed schultz. a programming note. tomorrow night nobel prize-winning economist and "new york times" columnist paul krugman will be our special guest. it's an "ed show" exclusive. you won't want to miss it. the "rachel maddow show" starts right now. good evening, rachel. >> very nice, ed. i'm looking forward to that. good news. >> you bet. >> thanks to you at home for staying with us this hour. apparently, today was kind of an amazing day for some reason. at least it was on wall street. for most of the day today the market had one of those days where you imagine maybe traders away from each other would run down the hall themselves screaming, throwing piles of dollar bills in the air and giggling maniacally. it was one of those crazy days. by late this afternoon, by 2:00 eastern the dow brushed up against an all-time record high. it hit almost its highest point ever in the whole history of the dow. it came within 15 points of the record. now, the record was set in october 2007. notabl