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	The Pope Is Determined to Face the Truth about Abuse Catholic Herald March 19, 2010 http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/features/opinion/o0000358.shtml This has been a difficult week for a Catholic community that - critics please note - is as revolted and angered by revelations of clerical child abuse as the rest of the country. Ordinary members of the Church are furious that priests and religious, of all people, could abuse their sacred trust to inflict sexual and other cruelties on children. Moreover, the Catholic in the pew is not convinced by the excuses given by some senior clergy for the cover-ups and mistakes that surrounded these cases. Even when every possible factor is taken into account, such as the over-used excuse that the nature of paedophilia was "not understood" years ago, the fact remains that bishops were prepared to run the risk of sexual predators re-offending rather than damage their own reputations. For which God forgive them, because Our Lord made very clear that sinners against children will be very thoroughly punished. We do not intend to comment on specific cases in this article, because so much wrong information is circulating and the story is still unfolding. But, like the vast majority of British and Irish Catholics, we do not believe that the Church in Ireland has acted fast or effectively enough, and we are not surprised that its reputation is so thoroughly ruined. But, as Archbishop Vincent Nichols has rightly pointed out, we also need to acknowledge that this is a terrible situation for those Irish priests and religious who are being blamed for institutional sins for which they bear no responsibility. Another priest found himself under attack for his upright conduct this week: the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, who as Archbishop of Munich agreed to let a priest from another diocese receive counselling following sexual allegations. The then Archbishop Ratzinger did not know that the priest was later assigned to ministry, and by the time further allegations were made against the man, the future Pope had been in Rome for years. Therefore attempts by the media to implicate Benedict XVI in this scandal are not only misleading; they also represent a serious lapse of professional standards. That said, no lapse can compare to the wickedness of paedophile priests. One of the reasons the current campaign against the Holy Father is so unjust is that he has acted more firmly than his predecessor in this matter. His determination to "purify" the Church has already been manifested in his decisive action following allegations about the Legionaries of Christ. He is also determined to uncover the truth about the extent of the Irish scandals from a hierarchy that still seems confused and evasive. And he knows that he will have to do much more - not to preserve the good name of the Church where it has failed, but to account for and make reparations for terrible sins. He needs our prayers; but we are sure that he would ask us to pray first for the children and families subjected to such vile indignities.
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