A Friend Like Ben

Andrew Sullivan has been following the latest Roman Catholic sexual abuse scandals in Germany and makes a good case that the Pope is in it up to his navel. Among many other crime of omission, it seems that he heard evidence of child rape by a priest, concealed that evidence from the proper authorities, and made it possible for the priest to rape again.

Here he quotes Hans Kung, a leading Catholic theologian:

In his 24 years as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, from around the world, all cases of grave sexual offences by clerics had to be reported, under strictest secrecy ("secretum pontificum"), to his curial office, which was exclusively responsible for dealing with them. Ratzinger himself, in a letter on "grave sexual crimes" addressed to all the bishops under the date of 18 May, 2001, warned the bishops, under threat of ecclesiastical punishment, to observe "papal secrecy" in such cases.

In his five years as Pope, Benedict XVI has done nothing to change this practice with all its fateful consequences.

Honesty demands that Joseph Ratzinger himself, the man who for decades has been principally responsible for the worldwide cover-up, at last pronounce his own "mea culpa".

As Bishop Tebartz van Elst of Limburg, in a radio address on March 14, put it: "Scandalous wrongs cannot be glossed over or tolerated, we need a change of attitude that makes room for the truth. Conversion and repentance begin when guilt is openly admitted, when contrition1 is expressed in deeds and manifested as such, when responsibility is taken, and the chance for a new beginning is seized upon."

A few previous Popes, including a previous Benedict (the IXth), have resigned. Andrew says its time for another resignation.

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