Memo to Munich: Get it Out Now!

Re the Archbishop of Munich: A cop once said to me, "If I catch someone robbing a convenience store, what are the odds this is the first time they've stolen anything." Other pedophile priests will be identified.

John- Stay on this story. You are providing valuable insight and clarity to the problem.

Just as there was a run on snowblowers this past winter in the U.S., there must be a run on paper shredders in Germany.

"The idea would be to reassure public opinion that the church isn't holding anything back, that this is indeed complete transparency."

On one level that's probably true, but on another level it would be to protect the fantasy of the spiritually superior sacramental priest. This whole crisis is a reality check for the laity who have had to live with the abuses of this fantasy for centuries. Not any more.

Better yet, ask Cardinal Law. He can tell you first hand what the long term consequences are of covering up and being found out. Maybe we understand now why Cardinal Law continues to enjoy a place of honor.

This is the most disappointing commentary I've read in weeks. Devoid of emphathy. Cold and cruel. Yes. Mr. Allen, you can "bet the farm" that "just around the corner" of "this mess" you will probably find a whole bunch of "other such cases," and it's gonna get harder and harder for you to explain the third "interlocking, but distinct, problem," the raped children and ruined lives. I believe Andrew Sullivan could re-post his reaction to your previous colummn and it would speak to this column too. I think it was called "The Problem With John Allen."

To quote a good movie about Princess Diana's death concerning the royal family: Who will save these people from themselves. This constant bleeding each day about something new is going to kill all credibility that the Vatican has left. Let's get it all out there.

The Pope should direct an independent entity to thoroughly review all materials and information to discover, if any , connection or involvement in the emerging mess in Germany. It should also include interviews with staff and the alleged abusers. Hopefully, the Church has learned a tough lesson: Trying to sit on bad news will never work, because someone involved will feel compelled to speak.

If it turns out, the Pope was involved in moving known perverts around and/or failing to disclose these very demented people so that kids could be protected - he should resign We have had to live too long under Bishops and Cardinals who committed these sins, but the Pope is another matter.

I fear he knows more than he is saying. I hope not.

Mr.Allen,Events and your thoughtful analyses of issues arising from these calamitous events have led to my reappraisal of what needs to be done to restore confidence in the Church hierarchy,including the restructuring of decision-making ,as well as calling to account those who failed to act to offer assistance and protection to the injured parties.Thanks for your thoughtful reporting,which is much more balanced than I had originally thought.

And, yet again -- why has Bernard Law continued to be "rewarded" for his crimes in Boston?

"Whatever Benedict XVI did or did not do in 1980 is far less important than the policies he is pursuing today as pope" !!!!!!!
I had to read this several times before I could believe what Allen had said. This comparison should never have been made. BOTH what he did back then (or didn't do) and what he is doing now (or is not doing) is of utmost importance.
I used to like Allen's reporting...... fair and objective. But methinks he has been in Rome too long. Bring him back to the States. If he were a priest I would swear he has "Red (hat) fever. Maybe if he got out of Rome he would stop being another spokesman for the papacy.
John, even though in canon law, you could become a cardinal as a layman, I don't think it is going to happen, especially in this papacy.

Too many formal leaders in the Church of Rome seem to be wearing signs that say "Please Kick Me". Masochism, perhaps?

The Church of Rome has "traditionalist" beliefs, practices, processes, and cultural assumptions that account for its sick, authoritarian, dysfunctional culture.

And recent years have shown us the "fruits" of this clerical culture, which is characterized by its lack of transparency and accountability, the arrogance of its hierarchs, their refusals to heed the voices of the faithful, persistent efforts to bring back Tridentine artifacts, and the elevation of the ordained and subordination of the laity.

A healthy church requires a healthy culture. If any real change is to be secured, then current formal leadership must be replaced.

Tithing = Enabling.

Stop enabling.

Perhaps it seems like a drip, drip, drip to the Irish Cardinal Brady , but to the victims of sexual abuse by the Roman Catholic clergy it has gained momentum more like a mighty stream which hopefully give them the justice that they so deserve after years of being stonewalled. Finally the institutional church headquartered at the Vatican has been forced into action on an ever widening scale. This crisis seems to have overtaken the ability of this Pope to respond to it. Sexual abuse is a world wide problem. If the church wants to regain its credibility and the trust of its people they have to admit responsibility to each victim, each country and to the faithful at large. Not just words of contrition but also beneficial action towards the victims. I agree with the recommendations and observations made in the NCR articles written by Hans Kung that the institutional church needs to take a good look at the celibacy issue, especially as it relates to clerical sexual abuse. In addition, I believe they also need to look at their stance towards women, and I strongly urge them all to go back to school in order to update their understanding of human sexuality and gender identity. I believe all these issues are related.

To all of you who in the past have so unjustly cast aspersions upon the integrity and strength of Mr. Allen's journalism:

read this article closely.

You have called him a face smiling simply to maintain access, but you failed to read the subtlety between his smiling lines.

Here he spells it out explicitly for you.

Anglo Americans, crippled by cable commercial TV, now only hear loudly trumpeted headlines and quick sound bites with no thought for what lies behind, for the logic, for the unwritten.

Here you may take and read, most loudly.

Then read James Joyce and learn to read.

Re-read the rest of Allen, and see that he said with great craft what you thought was unsaid.

Here it is said, most openly, even at great personal and professional cost.

For what he says here truly is essential for the future viability of our Church community, and let us thank him for it.

frère charles du désert OSB OBLAT (Congrégation de Subiaco)

I think the most telling story would be of any bishop in those years who handled the situations of priests abusing children in the legal and ethical way. Are there any? I can't think of a single report of one, which suggests that this very old tired sick story is THE story. That for these men, in their positions of authority and clerical culture, the appropriate response was always to protect the Church at the expense of children. That that has changed to some extent is the second story, but that only came about through this very painful and forced exposure. It remains necessary to move the clergy and hierarchy to a new understanding of the legal and ethical responses as taking precedence over the comfortable protection of a powerful caste.

If we don't tell the truth because it is the right thing to do, the last 20+ years should teach us to tell the truth because it will come out anyway. It's easier to tell all and come clean, than to pretend everything is fine and spend the rest of his papacy in a defensive posture.

7+6=13 captcha

"Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's Secretary of State, asserted that "someone is trying to undermine" the trust Catholics have in the church."

Cardinal Bertrone is right. Someone is undermining the trust Catholics have in the church. It's the bishops.

Steve

WHERE DOES THE BUCK STOP?

In a press release from the Holy See on March 9, 2010, "concerning cases of the sexual abuse of minors in ecclesiastical institutions," Director Fr. Federico Lombardi simply repeats some of the more clichéd responses and predictable excuses to the church's ever widening problems of sexual abuse, particularly that of minor children.

http://www.oecumene.radiovaticana.org/EN1/Articolo.asp?c=362995

The institutional Roman Catholic Church has reacted to the continuing sexual abuse debacle neither rapidly nor decisively, contrary to what Lombardi states.

The Vatican has attempted to distance itself from what has happened in country after country, first categorizing it as an "American problem," then as a "homosexual problem."

What was done by church leadership in the United States, for example, it was forced to do by the pressure of public opinion after records, files and correspondence were forced into the public venue in 2002 by Judge Constance M. Sweeney, a very brave, grounded and principled Catholic woman in Boston, Massachusetts.

The church's response continues to be reactive rather than pro-active while minimizing the systemic and endemic abuse of power and authority which has enabled and exacerbated it on the one hand while covering it up whenever and wherever possible on the other.

The "wide-ranging context" is that in countries from the United States, Canada, Australia and Ireland to Austria, the Netherlands and Germany church authorities have repeatedly and consistently disregarded its own moral and Canon laws as well as the existing laws of the countries' in which these horrific crimes against humanity occurred.

The church has lost its way.

Lombardi does not mention nor does he admit to the well documented widespread cover-up of the sexual abuse of children by bishops and other church officials in many countries like the United States, that makes the church's sexual abuse problems particularly egregious. If church authorities had done the morally right thing initially, one wonders how many children would have escaped being sexually abused by a particular priest?

As Patrick Wall, a former priest himself, states:

"The Roman Catholic Church has the largest body of knowledge of non-incarcerated sexual offenders in the world."

Who, one has to ask, would have more knowledge of the internal machinations of covering up for and protecting sexual predators from public scrutiny than Pope Benedict in his former position as Head of the Holy Office?

When are people of good will going to say, enough!

When are state legislators going to change the laws so that justice can be pursued for the thousands upon thousands of victims of childhood sexual abuse who have been unable to access let alone obtain justice?

What people seem to forget is that children's rights are human rights, that children's rights are civil rights and that the hierarchy, the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church, has violated those children's rights in the most profane of ways. It was done, not only by covering up for sexual abusers, mostly priests, but also by enabling the further abuse of untold numbers of children by these particular individuals whom they knew were dangerous sexual predators.

In most states and probably in most countries existing criminal and civil laws give more protection to sexual predators and their enablers then they do to victims of childhood sexual abuse by anyone.

The problem with statutes of limitation which have expired are probably much the same in European countries as they are in the United States. On the whole they are deplorable and this should not be.

The removal of all statutes of limitation in regard to the sexual abuse of children is the single, most effective way to hold predators and enabling institutions accountable before the law.

More than that, window legislation which allows a set timeframe for previously time barred cases of sexual abuse by anyone should be the norm.

It is possible to change laws in order to give some semblance of justice to those ravaged at so tender an age.

What is needed is the will to hold all sexual predators of children accountable along with any enabling individuals or institutions.

The state of Delaware in the United States is one of a very few states in the U.S. which has removed all criminal and civil statutes of limitation in regard to the sexual abuse of children by anyone. It also legislated a two year civil window for previously time barred cases, again, by anyone. That window closed in July of 2009.

In a civil suit, unlike a criminal suit, the burden of proof that any sexual abuse took place is on the plaintiff. The burden is not on the accused individual or institution to prove innocence, at least not in the United States.

Every victim of childhood sexual abuse should have a right to the pursuit of justice at the very least!

If Delaware can do it other states and other countries should be able to do the same and hold sexual predators and any enabling institutions responsible, especially when those institutions choose to ignore their own internal laws.

I was privileged to testify before the Senate and House Judiciary Committees in support of the 2007 Child Victims Law in Delaware.

No internal laws of any religious organization or denomination should be allowed to trump the laws of a civilized society where the protection of children is concerned.

Not only should the institutional Roman Catholic Church be held to the highest standard as a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, it should be leading by example. It should show by its actions what can and should be done to protect children from sexual abuse, from what really is just another example of trafficking in individuals for purposes of sexual exploitation, nothing less.

Thus far it has not been up to the task.

By any objective standard this church has for decades grossly violated the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Without any pledge by the Holy See to change the internal governmental structures that facilitated these crimes against humanity, I call for those violations to be brought before the United Nations for the crimes against humanity they truly are.

Sister Maureen Paul Turlish
Victims' Advocate
New Castle, Delaware, USA
maureenpaulturlish@yahoo

Memo to Cdl Bertone: the only ones undermining trust in the church are the "circle the wagons at all cost" ecclesiastics that are willing to sacrifice the many for the protection of the ordained few.

This is the most disappointing commentary I've read in weeks. Devoid of emphathy. Cold and cruel. Yes. Mr. Allen, you can "bet the farm" that "just around the corner" of "this mess" you will probably find a whole bunch of "other such cases," and it's gonna get harder and harder for you to explain the third "interlocking, but distinct, problem," the raped children and ruined lives. I believe Andrew Sullivan could re-post his reaction to your previous colummn and it would speak to this column too. I think it was called "The Problem With John Allen."

Anyone familiar with the Roman Catholic Church knows that one does not become a "religious" - either nun or priest - without taking a vow of obedience - obedience to one's superior. It is not surprising that the sexual abuse scandal has finally knocked on the doors of St. Peter's in Rome. The bishops and cardinals were obliged to be submissive (obedient) to the Vatican. One only has to look at the hierarchical structure of the church to understand the docility of diocesan decisions. This does not absolve anyone along this pecking order of sin but it explains the world wide pattern of the abuse of children by some nuns and some priests.

For those who give the pope "high marks" for his handling of the church's current embarrasment (& it appears Mr. Allen is one), I ask. As the only HR person for all of the institutions middle managers, the bishops, has he found one to have been seriously deficient in protecting children, &, if so, what did he do about it. If, as I believe to be the case, no bishop has been found deficient, how blind is he?

John: you see two problems: "the priests who abused and the bishops who failed to clear it up." A third problem is the popes who appointed the bishops. I had great hopes when a Pole became pope, but John Paul became ensnared by Roman hierarchical protocol, so he approved of Marciel Marcial and protected Cardinal Law from United States justice.
Ronald Knox, the son of an Anglican bishop and grandson of two Anglican bishops, converted to Roman Catholicism and was a shining intellectual light in English Catholicism. Chesterton wrote of him:
Mary of Holyrood must smile indeed/
To see what grim historic shade its shocks./
To see wit, laughter, and the Popish creed/
Cluster and sparkle in the name of Knox.
Although a Catholic for almost half a century Ronald Knox never weent to Rome. When asked why. He explained that a bad sailor should not go down in engine room. I heard of this more than fifty years ago, now I understand. I have sailed in the bark of Peter for 77 years, but am feeling seasick for the first time.

Three decades --even 2 decades-- ago sexual abuse was handled by society in ways far different than how it is handled today. We now know that we just can't take a second chance with an abuser. Therapy and changing assignments has practically no positive result we can depend upon. How on earth we can hold bishops and archbishops, in place 30 years ago, responsible for following the recommendations for treatment in vogue at the time is beyond me. I'm willing to bet that most probably weren't even given much of a briefing on a deviant priest's behavior; the situation in its specifics no doubt handled by an underling. Charges of sexual abuse just didn't jump to the top of a bishop's --or anyone's-- file pile back then like it does today. Unfortunately, in all institutions, it was a "just deal with it" strategy. Thank God it receives the attention needed today but for Pete's sake let's use a little historical perspective when we look backwards!

"whether it's about grinding an axe against the pope or the church, or simply a desire for truth"

If it were a desire for truth then those seeking to expose these matters would be focusing their attention more on secular institutions and seeking to uncover the massive but under-reported problem of sexual abuse in state institutions dealing with young people. But that, of course, would be to dissipate their attack on the Church. Let's be clear we are dealing with people who wish to destroy the Church. They do not have a desire for the truth per se, but only in so far as it assists them in their attack on the Church, and where it does not assist them, they ignore or even conceal it.

I think we are all forgetting the primary character in this sordid play - Satan himself. He is the one who is trying to destroy the church founded by his adversary, Jesus Christ. He is using humans (which he hates) as instruments of this destruction. You people only see the small picture when this is all really being played out on the grander plane of the supernatural. It is the real war to end all wars - God and the devil!!!

I'm amazed at the level of vitriol that "progressive" Catholics direct towards Church authorities. The same people who constantly preach tolerance to us are the first ones to pick up a stone when someone they dislike is in the middle of the circle. More than anyone, I want to see justice brought to this situation; nevertheless, I'm grieved by the feelings of hatred that ooze from the comment section of this article. Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!

Thirty years ago, no matter what other attitudes prevailed, sexually abusing children was a crime.

Stop using the excuse of changing attitudes.

John Allen always does an excellent job covering the Vatican in a reasonable manner. Please continue. However John, you are skimming over one important point regarding this crisis.

The variable that can be changed but Rome refuses even to acknowledge is the Church's response to the crime, specifically the bishops' complicit involvement. In each case the bishop was explicitly or implicitly an accomplice in each heinous crime the priest pedophile committed, yet there hasn't be any severe, direct action by the Vatican.

Pope Benedict XVI's harsh words are hollow unless he does something to the bishop accomplices. What's done to the perpetrators? Immediate forced removal from ministry and laizied. Why not for the bishop accomplices? As an analogy, the bishop accomplice supplied the gun, the bullets and the target. The only thing the bishop did not do is pull the trigger, they left that up to the known sociopathic priest! And we are told the bishops committed no crime?!? Really?!?

Right now only harsh sounding words are spoken, and the Vatican with the USCCB or any other bishops conference will NEVER have credibilty unless true justice is meted out to the bishop accomplices involved. If you are cleaning house of the sinful and criminal priests, you should clean house of the sinful and criminal bishops, cardinals and even pope if necessary.

No responsibility=no credibility!! Period!!

Can Benedict XVI credibly demand greater accountability from bishops, if his own record as a diocesan leader reflects the same pattern of neglect?

Or more accurately, John, will he?

He hasn't yet.

There's no sign that he's going to.

Bernard Law is the counter-example for accountability.

Ian Logan brings up the 'let's look at other institution for their abuse' misdirection.
Yes the Boy Scouts are once again in the abuse spotlike. me and mine are not in the Scouts..We are Catholics we will keep cleaning our own bottom.
Catholic laity will keep looking at the Catholic clerical abuse and why?
When willie Sutton was asked why he robbed banks his answer was 'that's where the money is'
look it up Logan..

This is the main and most damning passage of an article published on March 20, 2010 by AFP.

Le psychiatre du prêtre pédophile catholique qui a été accueilli il y a 30 ans dans le diocèse de l'actuel pape Benoît XVIe siècle pour y suivre une thérapie a affirmé hier que

--l'Église avait ignoré ses mises en garde pendant des années. --

Brisant le secret médical, le neurologue et psychanalyste Werner Huth raconte dans l'édition en ligne du Süddeutsche Zeitung avoir déconseillé très tôt à l'archevêché de Munich-Freising de laisser le prêtre «H.» travailler au contact d'adolescents. Condamné pour pédophilie en 1986, il a été suspendu cette semaine pour avoir enfreint l'interdiction de s'occuper de jeunes. Il avait été reçu en 1980 dans le diocèse de Benoît XVIe siècle, alors l'archevêque de Munich Joseph Ratzinger, malgré les soupçons qui pesaient déjà sur lui et à condition qu'il suive une thérapie.

Translation. The psychiatrist of the pedophilic Catholic priest who was lodged 30 years ago in the present pope's diocese to receive therapy claimed yesterday that the CHURCH HAD IGNORED HIS WARNINGS FOR YEARS.

Breaking his medical oath of secrecy, the neurologist and psychoanalyst Werner Huth writes in the online edition of Süddeutsche Zeitung that he had very early on guarded the Munich-Freising archbishopric against letting reverend "H." work with adolescents. Convicted of pedophilia in 1986, he was suspended this week for having violated the order to keep away from youth. He had been welcomed in 1980 in the diocese led by Pope Benedict who was then Munich's archbishop Joseph Ratzinger, despite suspicions about him and providing he went into therapy.

The paedophile priest's psychiatrist asserts that he warned the archdiocese in 1980 against letting reverend "H." work with adolescents.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/19/world/europe/19church.html

Mr Allen as always has a very thoughtful and informative article.

Two problems he has however.

One: What Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger did in Munch was so much like what Cardinal Law did, as well as many others, that it is hard not to believe that some formal secret Vatican rule did not exist instructing bishops how to deal with this sort of problem. If this is the case then the Vatican is complicit in these crimes as are the Bishops who cloistered these criminal priest to prevent exposure. Lawyers in America have asserted this, as I am sure Mr Allen is aware. I personally believe that all the Bishops where following explicit Vatican procedures.

Two: It is an innate characteristic of all religious organization to protect themselves from bad press. This is not going to change, for such organizations depend on the good will of the faithful which is badly damaged by exposure especially of these sort of events. A religious organization can devise every scheme in the world to bring to "public scrutiny" molesters of children however in the long run they will fail. The only guard against these sort of abuses is the personal morality of the people who are closes to the victims as the move "Doubt" showed. Fr Doyle, a prophet in his own age, is a rare bird, unfortunately, but his sense of morality is the only defense. It is clear from what happened to him, which was much like what happens to the victims, why he is such a rare bird, but so was Jesus.

The time has definitely come for Cardinal O'Brien to resign. While I think he definitely thought he was doing the right thing at the time, he made a serious error in judgment by having the victims sign confidentiality agreements not to report their abuse to the authorities. He should have gone to the authorities immediately.

This was an excellent article that was more than fair to the Church leaders who have been in charge for at least the past twenty years. Sister Turlish hits the "nail on the head" with her comments. I have been reading her factual and excellent accounts about what has been going on with the sexual abuse problem in the Church in this country. This scandal goes to the highest offices of the Catholic Church, from the Vatican to the rectories in most of the world. In 20001, a Cardinal in the Vatican wrote a letter to all the Bishops in the world indicating that they should not expose the scandal that was brewing to the media. There are still Bishops in this country who are fighting to keep the facts under seal and some are also preventing the states from extending the statue of limitations on the predators who abused our young people. God Bless all who are seeking justice for the abused and the poor.

John. . . .please keep fighting the good fight through your wonderful articles to bring honesty, transparency and fidelity to the Gospel back to the Catholic Church. The church belongs to the people of God, not the hierarchy. As for the sickening, pervasive and unending revelations of clerical sexual abuse of children . . . Matthew 18 5 - 10 says it all.

Consider Luke's Gospel, Ch. 12, v.45-48:
"But if the servant says to himself, 'My master is taking his time about coming,' and begins to abuse the housemen and servant girls, to eat and drink and get drunk, that servant's master will come back on a day when he does not expect him, at a time he does not know. He will punish him severely and rank him among those undeserving of trust. The slave who knew his master's wishes and did not fulfill them will get a severe beating, whereas the one who did not know them and nonetheless deserved to be flogged will get off with fewer stripes. When much has been given a man, much will be required of him. More will be asked of a man to whom more has been entrusted."
Assuming that the author of Luke selected from among the things Jesus said to meet the needs of his (Luke's) community, this may indicate that even in the First Century A.D. church members in authority were subject to temptation to abuse that power; and that some of them did in fact abuse their authority. People in authority who take advantage of that power for their own enrichment or other unjust purposes would usually try to cover that activity up. This may sound cynical, but "What else is new?"
We are more disappointed when these news items about sex abuse impact Catholic clergy, because we expect more virtuous conduct from our priests and bishops than from people in other religious or secular organizations. However, it is unjust for civil authorities to load financial penalties on Catholic institutions for activities that they overlook in secular institutions such as the public school systems that transfer abusing teachers with tenure from one school to another. Justice is not served by hitting the Church with financial penalties disproportionate to the penalties for secular organizations with similar misconduct.
TeaPot562

John Allen, you just don't get it yet do you? The Roman Catholic Church is implicated in secrecy and cover-up of sexual perverts in the Church for over 60 years at least that were ordained Catholic Priests. Why? How did this happen? Why?

And, in light of the terrible deeds committed against thousands and thousands of children and adolescent boys and girls, why are they continuing with the witch-hunts against Sisters instead of cleaning up their own act!!???

I'll tell you why. Because the RCC hierarchy of medieval minded men are not done with their abuse. So much for the Pope being "sorry." Sorry doesn't cut it anymore! When these Priests have no other agenda but to lay burdens on people, they are no longer suited for the priesthood, nor for leadership as important as that in a religious denomination.

The RCC is snowballing into hell under Pope Benedict's "leadership" and it is the leaderships fault. Open your eyes to the truth! Quit with the white-wash of Benedict because he is ultimately responsible. He let many children get molested. His policies let them get abused. He was silent. He did nothing to protect the little children.

His letter to the Irish blames the pedophile priests on secular culture. Bull!!! It's bull and you know it!!!

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's Secretary of State, asserted that "someone is trying to undermine" the trust Catholics have in the church.

Newsflash for Cardinal Bertone: We (the People of God who ARE The Church) can tell you who - the Roman Hierarchy!

Popes Benedict XVI and John Paul II, by their actions in trying to reform the Church since Vatican II to their narrow way of thinking, have brought the reputation of the Church to its knees through incompetent papacy and hierarchy leadership.

Pope John XXIII was absolutely correct and far-sighted by having the laity involved in participation and oversight of what is going on in Rome and elsewhere in the world. There is no place for secrecy leading the Church.

Eventually that will happen.

Observe the Second Commandment.

The only way the pope and others in the seat of power in the church can regain credibility is to look honestly at their own part is this whole sorry business. I would hope that even at this late stage, having failed to be totally honest in his letter to the Irish people, the pope may see the necessity of explaining his own position.
It is possible he knew little and realised less of what the treatment of the abusers of children did and the probable results of allowing them to continue their ministry but the least he could do would to admit and show his regret for his amazing ignorance snd the actions and lack of action that occurred during his watch. BUT we know the consequences now and he has to admit with contrition that he waa, even if unknowingly, complicit in the criminal acts that followed.
We lost a healthy child (a cot death) at three weeks nearly 50 years ago and I found it possible to move on only when, regardless of what everyone said, I was able to forgive myself for anything I had done or not done that might have led to the death of this loved infant. The bishops can only find their peace when they admit that no matter if they intended it or not their actions mean they were complicit. Were we (the people in the pews) also partly to blame for not shouting from the tree tops, for not confronting some priests about whom rumours must have circulated?

With all that is being said and done about new steps being taken to make the pedophile priests accountable for their actions, why is Bernard Law still above the law and enjoying such a comfortable life in Rome? When will he receive his come-uppance?

This is all very sad. I don't want to make excuses for the abuses of those in authority, but I do want to try to understand how these abuses can happen. I think that if one is embedded in a structure to a degree that a bishop is, it is too easy to absorb a sense that protecting the institution is a greater moral impartive than protecting the individual. That somehow it serves the greater good to do so. Clearly this is a horible distortion. But, if one can understand how this can happen, how it can make otherwise good men lose judgement with the result that they make terrible decisions with far reaching destruction to many, it can aid in forgiving and help in moving on.

However, this can only work if the next step would be to change the structure so that it is not so easy for good people to adopt these distorted rationalizations. I don't see any indication that Rome is willing to make these changes. And, without a willingness to do this, they continue to tell me that protecting their structure of power, a structure that damages those embedded in that structure, is more important than protecting the individual and those outside this structure.

I can't see this as Christ like at all. I am saddened and very concerned. Peace and prayers.

John David

drip..drip...drip...Will they ever learn? As more stories come out - given all the past history - I fear the outcome.

Who has the status and nerve to tell the Don - sorry the Pope - it's over, when it is over? It looks worse everyday for him, but more importantly, the Church.