"As archbishop, Benedict expended more energy pursuing theological dissidents than sexual predators. Already in the early 1980s, one could catch a glimpse of a future pope preoccupied with combating any movement away from church tradition. Vatican experts say there is little evidence that Benedict spent much time investigating more than 200 cases of “problem priests” in the diocese, with issues including alcohol abuse, adultery and, now under the microscope, pedophilia."
This paragraph from
this story in
The New York Times hardly comes as a surprise. Most of the church hierarchy was indifferent, at best, to the sufferings the clergy (including nuns) imposed on children. I spent most of my childhood in repressive Catholic Schools. And I witnessed a progressive priest being hounded out of our Parish too while the besotted Monsignor . . . My parents thought it was good for me and, while not in the intended way, it was. The only difference between the now Pope and the rest of the hierarchy is that he succeeded in the church politics and is now at the top of the apparatus, still bent on hunting down heresy instead of protecting the innocent. I will say that anyone who doesn't find the excuse that he simply 'overlooked' plain evidence of child molesters under his command is beyond help. His actions then were
despicable and the rationalizations for his failings now being offered make me ill. Believers are fond of asking "What Would Jesus Do?" Despite his purported intellectual prowess and proclivities, the Pope shows no signs of knowing the right answer to that question.
