The Someone In The Catholic Church Sex Scandal

Allegations of church-based sex abuse are increasing across Europe, including in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland.

New abuse allegations have surfaced in Brazil, home of the world's largest Catholic population. Meanwhile, Ireland continues to wrestle with the fallout from years of revelations about abusive priests. 

The problem for the Catholic Church in a sex scandal that has been going on for decades is a denial that there was ever a problem. 

Protecting a bureaucratic institution was more important than protecting innocent children from predators. There was little accountability for dubious management decisions in the highest levels of the Church. 

The words of Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone highlight the problem for the Catholic Church: “There has been a reduction in faith in all institutions including the Church,” said Bertone, number two in the Vatican hierarchy, after meeting Italian business leaders.  Bertone continued:

“The Church still enjoys great confidence on the part of the faithful, it is just that someone is trying to undermine that,” he said, without referring directly to the pedophilia scandal. “But the Church has special help, from above.”

In reality, the "someone" that the Vatican Secretary refers to that is undermining the Church is the senior leadership as well as the members of the church itself.  Take the church's pedophilia problems in America as an example. In Boston, many problem priests were never held accountable for their nefarious crimes only moved to different parishes to create additional problems elsewhere.

Cardinal Bernard Law was eventually removed from church management in Boston but was destined for a prestigious position in Rome. Today, Law has the exalted title of Archpriest of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, and titular Cardinal Priest of Santa Sussanna, the American Catholic church in Rome.  Like in Boston, there has been no accountability for senior church leaders in Ireland despite the ongoing pedophilia scandal in that country. 

The Catholic Church cannot be an institution that operates outside of fundamental international law. It cannot protect leaders that conspire to protect criminals dressed in priestly robes.  In order to preserve a false image of itself it has actually undermined itself as an institution of charity and fairness.

This morning the Vatican attacked The New York Times for its coverage of the sexual abuse of children by priests, rejecting accusations that Pope Benedict XVI had mishandled a series of abuse cases before he was elected.

Just several months ago, Pope Benedict XVI, who often cites his predecessor in his speeches, put Pope John Paul's beatification cause on a fast track by waiving a rule requiring a five-year wait before the start of the process. 

As the Pope in charge of the church during the height of all the revelations of sordid priest sex scandals as well as all the dubious management decisions during the last several decades, a fast track for Sainthood for John Paul is strange indeed.

Someone is to blame for the crimes involving the unfortunate victims of priest pedophilia. The attempt in the church is to put all the blame on the concept of the devil but in the temporal world someone moved criminal priests from parish to parish. Someone did not report their behavior to the proper authorities. Someone is responsile for all the lost trust and prestige of the catholic institution.

The problem for the Church is that "someone" remains undefined and that nobody in church leadership ever seems to come to mind.

http://www.eworldvu.com