BishopAccountability.org
	Pope Leads by Example Whig-Standard (Canada) April 21, 2008 http://www.thewhig.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=994996 Somewhere along the line, Pope Benedict XVI learned the first rule of effective public relations: get the bad stuff out of the way first. Even before the leader of the Roman Catholic Church landed in the U.S. last week, he was expressing the church's "deep shame" over years of sexual abuse by American priests. Since 1950, more than 4,000 priests in the U.S. have been accused of sexually abusing minors. The church has paid out more than $2 billion in settlements. Some dioceses have gone into bankruptcy because of the payouts. Court cases, new charges and payouts are recorded regularly, almost as mundanely financial reports, in newspapers all across the U.S. But it's only in the past half-dozen years that real progress has been made. And victims have had to fight for justice every step of the way. Historically, bishops in the U.S., as in Canada, had a habit of shuffling priests into other dioceses once the reports of abuse started to pile up. Once moved, however, they only continued their abusive ways. Benedict's head-on approach to talking about this "gravely immoral behaviour" of priests last week was as welcome as it was unprecedented. Then, on Thursday, he went a step further. In the chapel of the papal embassy in Washington, D.C., the Pope met with five or six American victims of sexual abuse at the hands of priests. They prayed together. Then Benedict met with them individually. It was an extraordinary gesture. It was also long overdue. At a large outdoor mass in Washington, Benedict asked the gathering to "do what you can to foster healing and reconciliation, and to assist those who have been hurt." He must have realized that this could only happen in a hierarchical institution like the Catholic Church if he himself led the way by example. And also that the church itself is badly in need of healing over the abuse suffered by its thousands of victims.
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