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	What Should Pope Benedict XVI Do? By Jack Mclean The Ottawa Citizen April 3, 2010 http://www.ottawacitizen.com/life/What+should+Pope+Benedict/2760038/story.html All institutions are based on virtue, not organization. When it concerns the operation of any religious organization, "moral credibility" becomes absolutely paramount. Without it, the institution crumbles. With the current pedophilia scandal, we are witnessing one of the gravest moral crises of the Roman Church since the great schism caused by the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century. This scandal has already rendered the Roman Catholic Church anemic in Newfoundland and rocked various parishes in the U.S. Now it is spreading its tentacles all across Germany and into Holland. Its long arm is reaching directly into the Vatican to touch the office of the Vicar of Christ. When priests, who are called to be "divine physicians" inflict lifelong sexual trauma on children and youth, it dims the lights of the Roman Catholic Church and undermines belief in the institution for its own followers. Religious institutions tend to have protective "personalities." This stance is legitimate when it comes to defending core teachings, so-called "protective doctrines." But when crimes are being committed by religious authorities, the moral law demands that protectionism be replaced by full disclosure. This is vitally imperative with religious institutions that are charged with the moral and spiritual guidance of their communities. And let us not forget that pedophilia is not just a moral outrage, but a crime punishable by law. What should Pope Benedict XVI do? In view of the wide scale of the current crisis, denials and half-measures are not only ineffective but also self-defeating. Files should be voluntarily opened to responsible, impartial authorities. Commissions of inquiry should be established. Victims should be allowed to vent their grievances and tell their stories. The church should welcome them as a loving parent, hear them, show them compassion and compensate them for their psychological and spiritual injuries. Responsibility should be taken and perpetrators found, charged and punished. Without these corrective measures, faith in the church and its mission can never be restored. Baha'u'llah wrote that a true divine is "as a head to the body of the world, and as eyes to the nations." But the wolves who come in sheep's clothing cause great harm. Jack McLean is a Baha'i scholar, teacher, essayist and poet published in the fields of spirituality, Baha'i theology and poetry.
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