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	Kenya: Cover-up Accusations against the Pope Are False and Unfair By Allafrica Daily Nation April 2, 2010 http://allafrica.com/stories/201004020958.html Pope Benedict has been under attack for allegedly covering up sex scandals while he was the head of one of the most important church offices in the 1990s. Many colleagues, among them quite a number of lawyers, have asked for my opinion. Usually a lawyer should build strong foundations for his or her arguments, whether they are in favour or against. I took on the task of going deeper into the matter, and I was appalled by what I found. In a very short span of time, 4,838 negative articles related to the subject have been written by the world's leading news agencies. In the media world, this happens only when there is a concerted campaign or a clear target. In the research, I discovered that the campaign did not begin yesterday. In a similar fashion, the Pope was attacked by unconnected events in 2005 for having been enrolled by force in the Nazi youth; in 2006, when his citation of a Byzantine emperor was taken out of context; in 2008, he was branded homophobic for saying in his annual Christmas message that the distinction between men and women is central to human nature, and this order, set down by creation, should be respected. IN 2009, 'The New York Times' accused him of causing confusion in Anglican and Catholic parishes by his decision to make it easier for Anglicans to convert. Every major accusation was accompanied by satellite-like others. The year 2010 was not spared as a major issue was brewing. The target, as usual, was the Pope, and the subject matter paedophilia. Before we find out if the Pope covered up paedophilia-related cases, let's look for a moment at the paedophilic abuses that have brought so much sadness to the church. Consider the following data in Germany -- of the 210,000 child abuse cases reported since 1995, only 94 belong to the Catholic Church. True, 94 cases in parishes and schools are a lot, and this raises very serious questions. More than average is expected from church members, but it is clear that the church consists of weak and sinful men and women, who are shaped by the cultural currents of the time. As of 2005 there were 406,411 priests in the world. Of these, less than 3,000 were found guilty of some form of molestation. These were not just paedophilic, but also hebephilic (16-17 year-old adolescents) and homosexual attractions. This means that the beautiful gift a priest is to society has been tarnished by the shameful behaviour of 0.73 per cent of the total number of priests. The news items conveyed to us lack proportionality. Consider this in relation to the brutal totality of the problem in the US. No one says, for example, that there were five times more cases of pastors being accused by different Protestant communities, or that in the same period, when 100 priests were condemned, there were 5,000 teachers of gymnastics and sports coaches who suffered the same fate. Apparently, world reports have lacked objectivity. We should consider the crux of the matter: Did the Pope cover up cases or not? Charles Scicluna, the head of the abuse reporting office at the Vatican, explains that secrecy during the investigative phase serves to protect the names of all the people involved -- first and foremost, the victims themselves, then the accused priests who have the right -- as everyone does -- to the presumption of innocence until proved guilty. The church does not like showcase justice. Norms on sexual abuse have never been understood as a ban on denouncing the crimes to the civil authorities. When questioned why these cases are resurging now, Scicluna explained that between 1975 and 1985, no cases of paedophilia committed by priests were brought to the attention of his office. After coming into force of the 1983 code of canon law, there was a period of uncertainty as to which of the serious crimes were reserved for this office. Only with John Paul II's decree of 2001 did paedophilia again become Rome's exclusive remit. From the moment Benedict XVI, then Cardinal Ratzinger, displayed great wisdom and firmness in handling the cases, and showed great courage in facing some of the most difficult and thorny issues. Therefore, to accuse the current pontiff of a cover-up is false and unfair. Certainly, some bishops have blundered by not making the right decision at the right time, thus the Pope's apology to Ireland. So if Pope Benedict has not been covering up cases, why the fuss? Sociologist Massimo Introvigne, in his article, The Social Construction of a Moral Panic, explains this trend based on the moral panic, which is socially constructed by reactions in both the media and in the political forum, out of proportion to the actual threat. According to Rafael Navarro, a law professor, the most solid scientific work on paedophilia -- Paedophiles and Priest, Anatomy of a Contemporary Crisis (Oxford University Press) -- belongs to a non-Catholic author, Prof Philip Jenkins. His thesis proves that the proportion of clergy with sexual problems is less in the Catholic Church than in other denominations. The writer is a Nairobi lawyer and university lecturer
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