His seemingly “no big deal” attitude is exactly the opposite – a very big deal to the victims and their families and the recurring source of the problem – i.e. any tolerance and/or excuses whatsoever of/for these fiendish individuals. Rather an immediate change in attitude for absolute and total justice for all victims and a wholesale commitment of “Never Again”.
Benedict, like John Paul does not seem to get it, treating the problem akin to “partial pregnancy”. It’s never partial. You either are or you not. The church either has a problem or not. If it does, AND IT DOES, it needs to responsibly and aggressively deal with it. Not simply through selective high profile media driven one-off token tribunals, while sweeping the rest under the carpet, as has evidently been policy to date. But rather what it’s not done yet – deal with the problem in its entirety – and DECISIVELY.
Note: While the Pontiff had some rather last minute, pre-arranged, pre-scripted meetings scheduled and conducted with 6 carefully pre-screened and selected victims being designed to proactively placate the progressives, the flood gates unexpectedly opened and the entire issue has become the principal focus wherever he’s gone. So much so that the Vatican is reportedly scrambling to put out notices that it is promptly considering even tougher approaches to the priest sexual abuse problem.
Tougher? That right there validates the church’s “minimalist” approach to the crisis thus far. It should have already been as tough and hard as it could be 24/7. Clearly it's not been the case.
The statement Benedict needs to make is not simple feel good expressions of sorrow and regret for the victims but rather that the church will act in concert across the entire spectrum of priests, bishops and cardinals to aggressively investigate, remove and bring to justice every priest retired or active that has (ever) brought harm to a child – period. No more talk.
The only thing the progressives want is ACTION. Real action - finally.
The jury will remain out and criticism will contnue to fester and grow until the Church makes a bold commitment to ferret each and every abuser and puts in (real) accountability protocols to ensure “the shell game” of moving of pedophilia priests from parish to parish ends and the open access door to the priesthood for deviates is permanetly closed.
Benedict and the Vatican have provided no such indication of “cleaning house” so far on this trip, but for a few comments that he feels the victim’s pain and will delve deeper into the problem and maybe changing a few protocols, one being the statute of limitations. Currently, victims have ten years upon reaching their 18th birthday to surface an incident(s). After that, it’s effectively in-admissible and won’t be entertained by the Church.
How utterly and absurdly ridiculous to put such a constraint given the shame and embarrassment the victims often feel, which thankfully is receding as more and more come forth and help others finally do the same.
This Analyst argues the position of the Church should be that (statute) time is totally irrelevant and that there should be NO time limitation – period. And a comprehensive and painful rooting out approach of ALL (not a handful) abusers past and present must and will be conducted. If the latter is done and becomes an on-going process, there would never be a need for statute anyway because the problem is “finally and functionally” addressed and there theoretically should be no more instances, if the Church maintains a whole new standard of aggressive vigilance and action.
Bottom line Recommendation to Vatican: “Practice what you Preach” - i.e. root out evil.
The Vatican should immediately order and immediately commence a fully comprehensive global top down, bottom up formal investigation on EVERY existing and retired (living) clergyman. Those found linked to sexual abuse regardless of degrees of separation from any particular incident will be formally turned over to local law enforcement authorities with the Vatican’s full cooperation in prosecution.
For those determined to neither be practicioner’s nor complicit in any way (including cover-up) to this behavior, they will be “Certified by Benedict as Pedophilia Free”. That personalized Benedict certification will be placed in their service file/dossier. To put appropriate accountability and ensure all due diligence and attention necessary in the investigations, Benedict will be held accountable for any wrong doing priest who sneaks through the investigation, for whatever reason. His penalty – A condition within the decree to step down as Pontiff for failing future victims. That will surely get and keep his interest and attention on the problem in a due diligence way heretofore not seen or experienced by either he or his predecessors.
In other words, innocent children remain at risk until the problem is truly addressed, which has not been the case to date. If children are at risk under his leadership due to his not taking ALL the requisite preventative actions, which the Church has yet to, then so too should his job and title – be at risk too. I can’t think of any victim, parent of a victim or parent of any child who would disagree. Nor should Benedict.
Let any of these people step forward now and say if they disagree, that the leader of the church should not be held accountable for the vile acts of his “employees”, if ALL prudent prevention measures were not responsibly taken.
If he won’t do that, than it proves he is not sincere in rooting out this evil cancer which still lurks in the clergy’s ranks. His continuation as leader of the Catholic Church should then be contested and a campaign initiated to select a successor who is – sincere and willing to do the right thing – i.e. ACT NOW and ACT DECISIVELY.
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