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	Pope Must Address Sex Criminals in Church By Charles L. Bailey Jr. Baldwinsville The Post-Standard April 28, 2008 http://www.syracuse.com/opinion/index.ssf?/base/opinion-4/1209200146177510.xml&coll=1 As an adult survivor of childhood sexual abuse by a Catholic priest, I don't know if I'm more deeply hurt or offended by the pope's visit. As head of the Catholic Church, he should talk less and do more about his offending bishops and priests. For Pope Benedict to say he is "ashamed" by the sex scandal is an insult to us survivors. To say he feels bad about the damage to the church is very offensive. What about the damage to the children? Meeting with a few survivors doesn't cut it. He should have met with the National Leadership of SNAP, the Survivors' Network of those Abused by Priests. SNAP followed proper channels to meet with the pope in advance of his visit, but received no response. It is past time for the pope to address these men as what they are. They are criminals, felony criminals at that. In every other sect of society it is a felony crime to rape a child, as I was raped. The charter for the protection of children states: "Complete openness and transparency" with regard to the sex abuse scandal. How can our bishop have a list of 49 suspected priests, going back to 1950, and be able to keep it secret? If a school district had a list of 49 suspect teachers, wouldn't there be public outrage and demand for the names? Why is our bishop allowed to keep such secrets? The abuse is documented by Father Doyle, Sipe and Wall in their new book, "Sex, Priests, and Secret Codes The Catholic Church's 2,000-year Paper Trail of Sexual Abuse." Pope Benedict has kept the most notorious of all American bishops in handling the clergy sexual abuse on the job in the literal and figurative center of Catholic power. That's Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston, whom the Vatican plucked for a prominent position in Rome after Law resigned over public outcry because of his cover-ups of predator priests. Pope Benedict, since becoming pope, hasn't disciplined or spoken out against a single U.S. bishop who failed to enforce the 2002 policy on child sexual abuse. Among these bishops is Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. George's failure to heed warnings about pedophile priest Daniel McCormack led to more children being abused between 2004 and 2005. McCormack was arrested in 2006 and sent to jail. Pope Benedict ignored the Dallas Morning News report on "Runaway Priests" about several proven, admitted and some credibly accused U.S. pedophile priests who fled the country to where? To Rome, where they live and work in and around the Vatican. Pope Benedict hasn't disciplined or spoken out against diocese or religious orders, including St. John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minn., which allows a convicted clergy sex offender to repeatedly lead retreats on its grounds, and misleads the public about its so-called monitoring of predator monks. In fact, the pope just welcomed the abbot and others from the abbey to the Vatican a few weeks back to promote a Bible the abbey publishes. Cardinal Ratzinger ignored repeated complaints from eight Legion of Christ seminarians who came forward in 1998 to say the order's founder, the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, sexually abused them. As cardinal, he slapped ABC-TV investigative reporter Brian Ross on the wrist (literally) for even asking a question about the case. (In 2006, Pope Benedict "invited" Maciel to live a "life of prayer and penance" but prohibited a church trial, much less turn him over the police). Charles L. Bailey Jr. lives in Baldwinsville.
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