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	The Church's Challenge Ottawa Citizen March 27, 2010 http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Church+challenge/2733465/story.html If Catholicism is under threat, as some Church officials fear, it is not just the result of secularism, consumerism and a hostile media. The Church itself has behaved in such a way as to erode faith and breed cynicism. The institution of the Roman Catholic Church -- centred in the Vatican -- is not the same thing as the Catholic religion. There are one billion Catholics in the world, and membership in the church is steadily climbing, particularly in Asia and Africa. It is a glorious and important religious tradition, filled with ceremony, mysticism and a legacy of good works. But many committed Catholics are despondent over the Church's inadequate response to the historic sexual abuse of children by priests, a response that has not only left perpetrators unpunished but has resulted in the victimization of children who could, and should, have been protected. As the list of sex scandals involving Catholic clergy grows -- from Mount Cashel in Newfoundland, to Boston, Ireland, Germany and, most recently, a school for the hearing impaired in Wisconsin -- the spotlight is on the Church leadership, right up to the Vatican, for allowing such abuse to continue. The reflex of the Church establishment is a defensive one. The Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano denounced the New York Times for its recent article that accused the Pope of decades of inaction in a sex abuse scandal involving a priest and hundreds of boys from a school for the hearing impaired in Wisconsin between 1950 and 1974. The Vatican newspaper called the article "an ignoble attempt to strike at Benedict XVI and his closest aides at all costs." The Pope, who at the time chaired the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, whose role it is "to promote and safeguard the doctrine on the faith and morals throughout the Catholic world," was alerted twice to allegations against Reverend Lawrence Murphy of Wisconsin, according to the Times, but did not respond. It has also been alleged that the Pope, while archbishop of Munich, was aware an abuser priest was coming into his archdiocese without restrictions, though the Vatican denies this. It's true that professional critics of the Church, who enjoy free access to a sympathetic (liberal) media, are thrilled to see the Pope under attack. There is, however, no evidence to suggest that the Pope is anything other than personally horrified at the crimes committed by his fellow clergy. The Pope said as much in a recent letter addressing sex abuse within the Catholic Church in Ireland. But despite the personal horror and remorse of Benedict and others, the Church continues to behave in the manner of a bureaucracy whose first priority is to preserve its power and status. This is natural for institutions that are invested heavily in hierarchy, but one would hope that the Church would aim to be more than just another institution. As numerous observers have pointed out, for too long Church leaders looked upon priestly child abuse as an issue of sin and repentance (which encourages secrecy) rather than one of crime and punishment (which requires transparency and accountability). Sexual deviancy exists in all corners of society, but the Church needs to acknowledge that under its own roof there has incubated a particular problem. Roman Catholics represent a sacred, global community, and they deserve better from their leaders.
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