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	Pope Benedict's Underwhelming Response to the Church Scandal in Ireland By Lisa Miller Newsweek March 21, 2010 http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/thehumancondition/archive/2010/03/21/pope-benedict-s-underwhelming-response-to-the-church-scandal-in-ireland.aspx UNITED STATES -- No one really imagined that Benedict XVI's pastoral letter to the Irish church, released Saturday would begin to reconcile the people of Ireland to the church that abused 15,000 children over decades. It did not. And though news reports hinted that the Pope might use the letter as an opportunity to address new accusations about child sexual abuse in other parts of Western Europe, including in his own former diocese of Munich and Friesing, he also did not. Benedict's letter was harsh. It called for discipline and self-reflection. But it did not take personal, or even Papal, responsibility for the scandal now mushrooming across the Atlantic. Nor did it make real recommendations about how to earn back the trust of the church in the West. One wonders, in fact, where Benedict's real heart lies, for since his election he has made a point of chiding the church in Europe generally as too secular, too un-orthodox. How far does he feel he needs to go in wooing back the very Catholics who, in some sense, were already lost? "It is my prayer," he wrote in language that sounds all-too boilerplate "that assisted by the intercession of her many saints, the church in Ireland will overcome the present crisis and become once more a convincing witness to the truth and goodness of almighty God." That—and his hope that the people of the church will bear the suffering of the Irish children like Jesus—feels facile at best. And though the Pope did concede that the church has demonstrated "a misplaced concern for the reputation of the church and the avoidance of scandal" and said he "openly expressed the shame and remorse that we all feel," he also continued to blame the scandal on others. No one—not bishops, priests, nuns, parents, even the faithful—themselves, escape having to bear the responsibility of this terrible burden. "I urge you," he wrote to Catholic parents, "to play your part in ensuring the best possible care of children." Not all parents are above reproach, of course, but this seems to me to be entirely missing the point.
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