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	Secrecy on Child Abuse Stalks Pope Sydney Morning Herald March 28, 2010 http://www.smh.com.au/world/secrecy-on-child-abuse-stalks-pope-20100327-r45l.html AUSTRALIA -- AS POPE Benedict XVI struggles to stay above the paedophilia priest scandals engulfing the Catholic Church, the Vatican is facing growing calls for an end to its "culture of secrecy". The Pope is at a "crossroads", said Vatican expert Marco Politi the day after the pontiff was implicated for a second time in a snowballing scandal. Pope Benedict has been accused of helping to keep the lid on the case of a US serial abuser - a priest who abused children at a school for the deaf in Wisconsin in the 1960s. "Either he proceeds on the path of greater transparency" or he hunkers down with defenders who claim he is being unfairly targeted, said Mr Politi of the left-wing Italian newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano. Giancarlo Zizola, writing in the daily La Repubblica, said the existing church structure had encouraged "self-defence of the institution and a culture of secrecy and denial which have prevailed over the values of justice, transparency and the human rights of innocents". He called for an "Operation Truth" that would not flinch at uncovering failures, even by Benedict's predecessor John Paul II, who is well on the road to sainthood five years after his death. Benedict reported to John Paul II as the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, responsible for sex abuse investigations from 1981 to 2005. Writing in the daily La Stampa, Gian Enrico Rusconi said church law was "absolutely inadequate" to address paedophilia. The Pope continues to speak out and apologise for the "heinous crime" of priests. The New York Times on Friday recalled the first incident to touch the Pope - allegations he helped protect a known abuser when he was archbishop of Munich, a charge the Vatican has rejected.
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