The Catholic Church has been faulted countless times during its existence, and in many cases, for good reason.

The church has been called archaic, intolerant and even brutal and barbaric.

In a vague concession, Pope John Paul II recently apologized for some of the church’s past sins, including its offenses against Jews, women and minorities.

In his apology, the pope didn’t make any specific references to the church’s more infamous sins, such as Pope Pius XII ignoring the Holocaust.

The pope has been criticized by many within the past few weeks about the indefinite nature of the blanket apology; some charge that the pontiff should have been more specific about the tragedies the church either ignored or committed.

The critics are correct in that a better apology would have been preferable, but what they’re not acknowledging is how monumental the apology itself is.

The Catholic Church has rarely owned up to its misdeeds and almost never apologized.

For a religion that stresses confession, atonement for sins and, ultimately, forgiveness, this is ironic.

Catholics may believe their church is the venue for God’s word, but what church officials sometimes forget is the mightiest of institutions can be fallible, and even a religious institution should ask for God’s forgiveness.

An apology for centuries of wrongdoing against minorities, women and Jews may seem ridiculous to some people, and that’s understandable.

It’s similar to when President Bill Clinton was mulling over the possibility of a formal U.S. apology for slavery.

Both cases seem like too little, too late.

But in both cases, it’s easy for critics to make it a lose-lose situation for the person who’s doing the apologizing.

The Clinton administration seemed silly for considering an apology for slavery 200 years after the fact.

After all, an apology wouldn’t automatically right all that is severely wrong with race relations in this country.

On the other hand, if Clinton had refused to apologize, he would have appeared to be a bigot.

John Paul II is essentially in the same boat.

By issuing his apology, he did little to pacify those who are angry with the church, but again, those people are missing the bigger picture.

It’s OK if this apology is vague as long as it’s the first step, as long as the church starts to actually atone for its sins.

But if it doesn’t, there was little point in the apology in the first place.

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Iowa State Daily Editorial Board: Sara Ziegler, Greg Jerrett, Kate Kompas, Carrie Tett and David Roepke.