On the crisis, Benedict XVI changes the tone

I don't think that Archbishop Timothy Dolan's statement that the pope is “now suffering some of the same unjust accusations, shouts of the mob, and scourging at the pillar, as did Jesus.” was inaccurate, so the fact that the Pope is saying that "the greatest persecution of the church doesn’t come from enemies on the outside, but is born in sin within the church" should give us some real food for thought and reflection on the health of our Church.

Sr. Sylvia used to say: "Actions speak louder than words".
So what will he do about clericalism that is the root of the coverup?
He's done nothing so far. He throws a few lines here and there to tamp down the fires but does nothing. The Irish are still waiting months later as are the victims he met in New York over 2 years ago!

Mr. Allen,
You write very well organized reports. Being Pope is evidently a burden; and it becomes more difficult when you meet resistance to corrective action from Cardinals and Bishops within the church. Paul VI faced much of that when Humanae Vitae was ignored, criticized and belittled. Benedict XVI has some of the same problems, even if the personalities of those rowing in the wrong direction are different. We pray daily for his intentions.
TeaPot562

Viva il Papa

The use of the word "seems" underlines the dilemma here. There is no real basis for pointing to what all this means because the Pope's words do not include clear references to the sins he is talking about, to who has to repent, etc, etc. This article could have been written by a kremlinologist during the darkest days of the cold war. That's where we are: led by men who seem always to have at least three versions of any given story in their minds as they address it. There is no honor here, and no commitment to anything having to do with the good of the People of God.

If admitting that you have a problem is the first step in the process of solving the problem, it appears that the church might be on the right track. Hopefully this won't turn into another "the heirarchy has a problem so the laity needs to confess" situation. We need meaningful change, not "Band-Aids".

I read Tuesday that the pope now places the crisis on the sins of the pedophile priests. I do not think he gets it. It wasn't those priests who covered up the crimes, who told the bishops if they didn't cover up they'd be excommunicated, who delayed up to 12 years or more to prosecute the guilty, who wrote letters to bishops praising those who covered up. The heirarchy still cannot accept responsibility for their immoral and criminal actions. They are still in the blame stage.

All fine and good, John, but the credibility of the Pope is so damaged as to make his words meaningless. Actions, however, speak truth. He needs to DO something other than preach words. Justice requires that any priest, bishop, cardinal, or Pope who was involved [or gives the impression of having been involved] must be REMOVED from that office! Words are cheap and the Pope's words are inaudible to thinking Christians. These thinking Christians, by definition, are not morons who once deceived continue to be deceived. Unfortunately for the Pope, those days are gone. Let him act boldly and courageously and REMOVE those involved, and then if they repent, offer forgiveness.

Well! Surprise! The problem lies within the church. Isn't this what many, many people (the NCR included) have been saying for years? No doubt, now that Benedict has spoken, the bishops will now fall all over themselves to say, "Of course -- this is what we've been saying for years."

Why did it take Rome so long to understand? Has the Vatican bubble, in which like-minded men repeat misleading information to one another and come to believe it, finally burst? And more important, will any action -- like the reform of the Curia that Cardinal Schönborn calls for -- follow these remarks?

This is a classic example of the Catholic "Both/And". The media campaign against the Church is undeniable. BUT it has arisen because of sin within the Church (as Cardinal, Benedict famously called it "filth). Our first task therefore is that inner Church purification which Vatican II said twice over was "always necessary" (semper purificanda: Const. on the Church 8, Decree on Ecumenism 6). As Cardinal and now as Pope, Benedict has presided over the removal of 3,000 priests. Why have the media not reported this? It doesn't fit their story-line, developed to discredit the leading moral authority in today's world.

The attacks from within come not only from abusive priests, but also from those who seek to defile the True Faith and lead others in their dissent and rejection of the Magisterial Teachings. *cough* NCR *cough*

John Allen's first rate insights are often hampered by his conflict based, American Journalist approach to the Vatican. That is the case with this article. He seems to be declaring some kind of a press victory in the Pope's most recent statement. In truth, as the recent New York Times/CBS poll shows, a majority of American Catholics feel the Vatican and the Holy Father were mistreated by the press over the past month. Journalism rule 1 is to know your audience. Mr Allen, its the people in the pews, not the people of the press.

Not impressed! Ratzinger's response should have come long ago. He has no choice but to respond as questioned now. I am unclear when he, Ratzinger says the "Church" has sinned within. I wish he would narrow that down because I am of the Church but have nothing to do with the patriarchal, clerical sins of the Catholic Church. For thirty years as a woman, I have felt sinned against by my Church. Will that ever change? My children left the church as they got older. I have stopped trying to get them back to Mass. In fact I think they are better off...

'The fault worth focusing on lies not in the church’s stars, but in itself.' The curch as an 'it'? Very strange changing of the famous quote.

Surely the fault lies in ourselves,in all of us, including the Pope, for taking decades to accept what has happened (i speak hopefully, praying that it is really past), and for being so slow in recognizing the enormous, even 'terrifying,' change required. Obligatory priestly celibacy, church- not God-originated, has to go; and governance has to reflect the communion of the Trinity, wherein all are equally God's children, men and women, called to serve according to our abilities in the Communion of the Saints, with the institutional elements always serving the People of God, both in the strict sense, and in the sense of all humanity, indeed all Creation.

What's the SIN in the Church? I hope he is including the cover up by bishops and their putting children in harm's way by moving known pedophiles to other parishes. I hope he includes the Vatican's honoring such a bishop from Boston by giving him special honors when he had to resign his diocese.
I only can hope that this change of heart goes at least that far!!!

Johm, I have great admiration for what and how you write ... both in your books and in your columns in NCR. In this instance, however, I think you were trying to make sure you get an invitation to the next press dinner at the Vatican. Our Holy Father is still "spinning". When is he going to speak directly to the whole church with the vocabulary of the every-day Catholic. These sins of "sexual abuse of minors" and the "cover-up" by many Bishops of those crimes is what I presume he was addressing on the plane to Portugal. Why not call it what it is ... instead of hiding from it with pedantic "churchy" language?

Barry Burke
Lakewood, NJ

I've reluctantly come to the conclusion that for many of us "civilians", the Church, as a result of its initially desultory response to the sex abuse crisis, has really lost any moral authority it once had--across the board.
One imagines that, just like in past moral scandals, time will heal this. But in order to set the stage the Pope must absolutely be out in front of the effort to first, acknowledge (which he's done...) and accept responsibility for the Church's immense moral lapse; second, to chastise, punish and purge those responsible; third, to adopt and promote a compelling moral stance, possibly with some sort of Papal Bull (or whatever the appropriate term of art is) that sets the Church on the correct course going forward. Then, perhaps in a few decades, Church authorities will once more be able to look their parishioners directly in the eyes again in moral rectitude. Until then, I think they'd best keep their gaze below the horizontal.

Benedict will go down as one of the truly great popes of our time...two in a row! How fortunate we are.

He's the first pope in a long time to buck the Vatican machine, Deo Gratias!

He's asking all of us...including NCR readers...for prayer, penitence, and deeper conversion. Let's stop the conservative/liberal bitterness and bickering and rally behind the Gospel in all its fullness set forth by Our Lord Jesus Christ and together do prayer and penance for our salvation and that of the whole Church, including not just the victims, but the pedophiles too!

I still object to the generic nomenclature. It is the clergy and hierarchy who have sinned in regard to the sexual abuse issue. Why do we hear about the "CHURCH."

When Pope Benedict speaks of sin attacking the church from within, if he is speaking about the sins of the bishops who covered up the sex abuse, then he is on the way to getting it. If he is speaking about the abuse itself, then he misses the point entirely. Sex abuse of minor children is not sin, but sickness. In any case, as long as Pope Benedict harbors Cardinal Law in the Vatican by giving Law a place of honor and declines to force out those bishops still on the job who covered up the abuse, one can hardly say the "pope gets it just fine." That kind of credit is simply out of place at this point.

When Pope Benedict speaks of sin attacking the church from within, if he is speaking about the sins of the bishops who covered up the sex abuse, then he is on the way to getting it. If he is speaking about the abuse itself, then he misses the point entirely. Sex abuse of minor children is not sin, but sickness. In any case, as long as Pope Benedict harbors Cardinal Law in the Vatican by giving Law a place of honor and declines to force out those bishops still on the job who covered up the abuse, one can hardly say the "pope gets it just fine." That kind of credit is simply out of place at this point.

"Tuesday morning, however, Benedict XVI seemed to show that he gets it just fine."

Benedict has always 'gotten it.' He simply refuses to do anything about it. B16 continues on his "back to the past" pattern. Everything he is doing is putting fabulous icing on a decayed, moldy cake then offering it to whomever will eat it!

It is difficult for me to believe that you have fallen for the charade! As with so many family members of a dysfunctional person, you want him to be healthy more than he does.

Stop writing from what you would ‘like’ to see, and concentrate on what IS.

HE'S THE SAME, JOHN ALLEN. HE'S THE SAME!

only.....worse

This is a good beginning, and hopefully more bishops will resign and do public penance for their roles in reassigning known child abusers. If the Pope can now expand that understanding of "sin within the Church," we could look forward to more conversion, prayer and penance along with faith, hope and charity in regards to distribution of wealth, women's roles within the church-- to name just a few topics that cry out for justice.

It all depends what "sin" the Pope is referring to. Is it to pedophilia? Is it a sin or a terrible psychological condition which is questionably sinful? Is it the "sin" of clericalism? If the latter there is hope. If the former....

Talk is cheap. Let's see the pope change his behavior, fire a few bishops and really listen publicly to the victims instead of mouthing platitudes about sin and repentance.

“The pope does not beg or organize demonstrations in his own defense or support,” Lombardi said.

Ineresting quote. I hear that Opus Dei buses in supporters to demonstrate on behalf of the Pope.

I am very glad for Benedict XVI’s recent statement and your perspective on it. I believe it is important that conservatives step out of their “in-the-bunker-everyone-is-against-us-mentality” and admit their own role in the generation of current major problems.

I still feel Benedict XVI is not going far enough with regards to his own culpability and that of John Paul II
I do get the sense that Benedict XVI is still getting preferential treatment,

Here are the questions that no one seems to be asking.

Why did he dismiss the suit “Without Explanation” in 1998 that the seminarians brought against Father Maciel?

What about the six years when the victims had to endure indifference from the Vatican and calumnies from the Legionaries of Christ and their defenders?

What changed about the seminarians charges from 1998 to 2004 other than the fact that John Paul II was near the end or his mortal life?

What about the fact there never was a trial?

What role did Cardinal Sodano and John Paul II play in what may well be the smoking gun case of the sex abuse scandal. How do attitudes exhibited during the Maciel case reveal how the tone for indifference, bullying, denial, and delay was set by the Vatican and John Paul II?
Why are not these questions being investigated with more focus and vigor?

Will Raymond

The pope IS insulated from the full gravity of this situation.

Wow, because he said a sentence or a paragraph to reporters who were all gathered up and smiling on a plane, it is striking to you? And then he rebuffed Sodano by "carefully refraining from adding any papal reaction to what Sodano actually said."

At this rate, it'll only take another millenium to get the pedophilia under control.

You know, during Holy Week, I thought the Pope had the perfect time to stand up as an example and show what true
confession/penance is, by simply and clearly stating that the policy the Hierarchy followed for centuries was
wrong, and that they, the Bishops, Cardinals and Popes of history have this stain of allowing corruption to
attack the most innocent, in order to save face, power, reputation, whatever. I wanted him to confront it clearly
and honestly, ask for forgiveness, and outline a tough plan to prevent any further obstruction of justice.

Face it, he's not outing Bishops who covered up, because it was the culture to do so, and he knew it, and every other pope knew it, including the previous one. They are all guilty of this. Even the beloved previous pope. All of them.
If he makes them resign, he has to resign himself.

He could have been a most beloved and clear eyed leader, one people could follow...he could have rejuvenated
the church. Instead, we get this.

It's too late, and it's too guarded, and it is not clean and simple and open and truthful. I doubt he is saying this on his own accord, but in an attempt to stifle this once and for all.

It's too late, and you will never get your hands on my children or grandchildren.
It's time for the nuns to step forward and save this church. It's time for them to lead.

He can begin by also dealing with some other BIG SINS the Church has failed to deal with: Women's ordination to the priesthood and episcopate. It's two thousand years overdue. All humans, male and female are equal in Jesus. There is simply not one shred of theological ground that would prevent women from ordination. The old argument that the Church does not have the authority is just plain bull. It does have the authority and until women are ordained to the priesthood and episcopate, this sin will not be addressed. It's ridiculous. The Church has many sins to deal with. Let's add this one to the top of the list. John Allen just loves to cozy up to the Bishop of Rome. It's becoming embarrassing.

If this vague admission of "sin" is any indicator of the rate of change in the Church to sort out its failures then it's going to be a very long haul indeed.

Gay people are modern martyrs in the church today. I know of this personally.

It's time for this pope to step down --- retire --- do whatever! He's done enough to cripple this church!

More noise
I'll begin to believe in the Church again when I have a new dynamic Pope who is all about change. Women, bioethics, married clergy, birth control. Until then nothing has or ever will change. There just aren't enough of them behind bars for life yet.

A handful of Roman Catholic bishops around the world have now resigned either because of their complicity in covering up clerical sexual abuse or because they themselves abused children and teenagers.

It is now time for Cardinal Bernard Francis Law to hand in his resignation as Archpriest of Rome’s venerable Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. He is a triumphalist symbol of all that is wrong in the contemporary Roman Catholic Church: abusive power that not only goes unpunished but finds institutional embellishment and reinforcement in one of the world’s oldest of old boys’ clubs.

Cardinal Law was the first bishop shown to have actively participated in the cover-up of child molestation. Despite substantial amounts of documentation that demonstrated Bernard Law’s deep involvement in covering up the molestation of thousands of children by priests in the Archdiocese of Boston, Pope John Paul II appointed him to the comfortable and prestigious position at Santa Maria Maggiore. And incredibly, Law remains an influential churchman. Although he is now 78, the old fellow could still reign in Renaissance splendor for many more years. His predecessor at Maria Maggiore held on until he was 82.

As Patrick Fleming observed in the Tablet (8 May 2010), “Every kind of addict, including the sexual addict who abuses children, requires an enabler to continue in his or her illness.”

Cardinal Law remains a strong symbol of the abusive enabler. And the institutional church continues to honor and rely on him as a member of the congregations for: the Oriental Churches, the Clergy, Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments, Evangelization of Peoples, Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, Catholic Education, Bishops as well as the Pontifical Council for the Family.

Some symbol indeed!

Pope Benedict has stressed the need for a “purification” of the church. Well said. But words need reinforcement in concrete action. Otherwise they are little more than “a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.”

I find each of these responses saying more about the writer than than the situations addressed. I do wonder why no one seems to be addressing the greater problem of child abuse in the educational system as well. Why are the superiors of offending teachers not held accountable? The parallels are there.

Why is it that some of us are unable to admit that the Pope has sinned in his failure to seek justice for the victims of pedophilia? It's always some other group, be it women, wayward priests, or simply human failure. But as a spiritual leader, he seems always to distance the Curia and himself from the issue.

Until the Vatican accepts that the abuse scandal grew out of a needlessly restrictive policy on priesthood candidates, this problem is going to pop up again and again. There is no religious magic on the Y chromosome and several of the apostles, including Peter, had wives. So why be so stubborn on the issue of who can be a priest when the current regressiive policy only leads to further loss of respect for the Church? There is no theological requirment to be misogynistic.

My first response to the Pope’s now infamous acknowledgement was that which Anonymous so wisely shared: “As with so many family members of a dysfunctional person, you want him to be healthy more than he does.” For my mind said he was acknowledging both the clerical abuse and the clerical hierarchy’s cover-up. BUT what my mind said is not what the Pope said. He left any interpretation of his words up to the listener. Having realized how tedious the Vatican is with their choice of words – THE AMBIGUOUSNESS IS NOT AN ACCIDENT. We are only left with the burden of “time” to clarify his words; time, that will reveal his actions which will reveal the meaning of his present message.

The purpose of consciously relaying ambiguous messages is often many-fold. One purpose is to allow the minds of those wanting to be loyal to the throne to believe “loyal” thoughts. Thoughts such as those expressed by Thomas Michael Barnes, “The pope IS insulated from the full gravity of this situation.” A pragmatic mind sees the intention of “leaked” rumors such as this. In this case it likely all boils down to:
1.) The Pope has been caught in the same net as many of the bishops, the net of documented proof that they had the knowledge of the victims. Therefore, the Pope nor his entourage can deny it.
2.) If the Vatican plans to continue promoting the Pope as infallible, the Pope needs the image that he did not / does not know whatever piece of information that is applicable to the situation. For an infallible Pope could not be viewed as one who makes more victims nor does NOT hear the cries of his flock.
3.) And since there is proof the Pope was involved and that news has had painful reactions from all around the world, THE ONLY DOOR OPEN TO ESCAPE DESTROYING THE PRISTINE INFALLIBLE IMAGE is for those around him to lie and say he doesn’t/didn’t know. It is the only way the Pope can maintain the pristine infallible image EVEN in the minds of those who desperately want to remain loyal to Rome. IMO it is undeniable that from the top down IN ROME, there are no accidents.

Indigoblue840 shared the words that race across my mind every time I hear someone express their frustration that the Pope hasn’t defrocked many bishops guilty of cover-up, “If he makes them resign, he has to resign himself.” Likely BXVIth has been aware of his “Catch 22” since the first abuse case hit the press in the USA. He is brilliant and politically brilliant. He would not have allowed this piece of wisdom to slip through his fingers. Self preservation is the strongest motivation, His cunning choices all have purpose. Likely, he hopes he meets his creator before the ____hits the fan.

Pray for the people of God…