BishopAccountability.org
	Do More to Clear Pope's Name By Chege Mbitiru Daily Nation June 16, 2010 http://www.nation.co.ke/News/africa/Do%20more%20to%20clear%20Popes%20name%20/-/1066/919638/-/13ojkvt/-/ This isn't belabouring the point. The debate on the Catholic Church clerical sex abuse remains. Thankfully, Pope Benedict XVI has taken it in the right direction: self-examination. "The greatest persecution of the church doesn't come from enemies on the outside but is born from the sins within the church," he said on Tuesday. The church needs "to profoundly relearn penitence, accept purification, learn forgiveness — but also justice." He spoke while en route to Portugal. Reporters submitted questions in advance. That allowed reflection and, obviously, prayers. Unlike in the past, the church's role became explicit. Blaming the abusers and bishops who failed to stop them became inoperative. Progressive! The Pope's comments contrasted with the Vatican's earlier defensive posture. It blamed the media, advocates of abortion rights and legal same-sex marriages. That's escapism. Early this month The New York Times reported a classic example. Pope John Paul II, then Cardinal Karol Wojtyla in Poland, regarded clerical sex abuse reports as "a Communist plot to smear the church." Evidence has emerged the Communists knew paedophilia existed. They used that information to malign a lethargic church officialdom, a wake up call. The Times pointed out Pope John Paul treated all stories about paedophile clergy with aplomb, as "slander directed against the church." That remained so for 20 years. As the debate on the scandal continues, Pope Benedict's defenders are speaking out. They point out that two blocks existed, and plausibly still do, in the Vatican. One would appear to be what Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin has described as "strong forces" that prefers the truth remains under wraps. Pope Benedict, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, seems to belong to the block that, while it didn't shout from mountains tops tried to deal with the sinners. Mr John L Allen, a writer for the US-based National Catholic Reporter, is one of Pope Benedict's defenders. By all accounts, he knows of most matters Catholic. The Boston College Chronicle reported him as saying "Since 2001 no senior official in the Vatican has done more to weed abuser priests out of ministry and acknowledge the suffering of victims than the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger." How is it little of this is known? According to Mr Allen, the Vatican's effort to tell the Pope's story has been "remarkably inept." In a website posting, Mr Allen offers a partial answer: a concern that "to salvage the reputation of Benedict XVI it might be necessary to tarnish that of Pope John Paul II." Implied is machination at the Vatican. As pointed out in this column sometime back, the faithful need not worry. Their faith isn't an issue. Church management is. That's why the faithful should embrace the latest stand by their Holy Father. He seems to be moving in the direction of Pope John XXIII. He convened the Vatican II, 1962-65, "to throw open the windows of the Church." As Mr Stephen J. Stahley wrote in The Baltimore Sun last week, the overdue reforms the council promised, but stalled in John Paul's "retrench and restore" era "may flood in the Church." That would restore it, with a billion followers worldwide, as a credible institution in the affairs of human beings, not just the faithful. Contact: cmbitiru@hotmail.com
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