BishopAccountability.org
	Pope Should Abandon Institutional Self-protection, Embrace Transparency By Rajan Zed Washington Post March 31, 2010 http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/rajan_zed/2010/03/pope_should_urgently_come_up_with_a_white_paper.html Q:Should Pope Benedict XVI be held responsible for the escalating scandals over clerical sexual abuse in Europe? Should he be investigated for cases of abuse that occurred under his watch as archbishop of Munich or as the Vatican's chief doctrinal enforcer? Should the pope resign? His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI should urgently come up with a White Paper on the reportedly mushrooming global sex scandal engulfing the Roman Catholic Church, which is unprecedented and shocking. This authoritative Paper should honestly address the reported worldwide sexual abuse crisis the Church is facing; and then list the solutions, action program and implementation schedule. A monitoring body should also be established for future. Instead of Church officials pointing fingers at the "hostile media", consumerism, and secularism; Pope should publicly acknowledge the reported past mistakes of the Church on this issue, apologize, and clarify his personal role in the crisis. Stonewalling cannot go on forever to handle such a big church credibility crisis. It is now time to abandon the institutional self-protection and embrace accountability and transparency. Vatican should come out of its bureaucratic web and reset its priorities and undertake reform. Besides being very crucial to the moral credibility of Catholic hierarchy, this crisis has also eroded the faith of believers in religion in general and resulted in their falling confidence. Eyes of the world are at Holy See now to see how it handles this scandal as Roman Catholics at about 1.17 billion are the largest single religious group.
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