Indiana Daily Student
March 22, 2010
http://www.idsnews.com/news/story.aspx?id=74496
UNITED STATES -- This Saturday, Pope Benedict XVI offered a public apology in Ireland to those who have suffered abuse by members of the clergy.
He waxed poetic about how sinful and criminal these actions were and expounded on the shame and remorse it has brought to the Catholic Church.
The words seemed sincere, but the Vatican has had a lot of practice with apology. In fact, the church is no stranger to scandal — it dealt with a public relations nightmare in 2002 after a slew of sexual abuse incidents surfaced.
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Given its wealth of experience about the matter, it figures the Vatican would understand how to best handle the situation.
This was a golden opportunity for the Church to show what it has learned from the past. Instead of denying responsibility, they could encourage transparency and accountability for the atrocities that had been committed.
But the pope had only words to offer for the casualties of a corrupted church.
He demanded no discipline against those who had sinned and did nothing to rectify rules that are potentially allowing such abuse to occur.
Presently the spotlight is on Ireland because of two reports released last year that uncovered blatant abuse committed by Church officials.
Examples include exploitation of children in church-run schools and collusion between police and the Church in covering up sexual abuse by priests.
But Ireland is not the only country where allegations have recently arisen.
In Germany, Austria and the Netherlands, more reports of abuse have surfaced.
One of the most damning pieces of evidence is that when the pope was an archbishop in Munich, he allowed an abusive priest to continue pastoring.
The pope characterized the behavior of Ireland's bishops as "grave errors of judgment and failures of leadership," but he has done nothing to rectify the system in order to keep such things from happening again. This is an opportunity for the public at large to demand more decency from the Catholic Church.
In an age of transparency, the pope can no longer hide behind the Vatican in an effort to avoid scandal.
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