BishopAccountability.org
	Pope Wants Other Groups Held Accountable for Abuse Columbia Daily Tribune November 27, 2011 http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2011/nov/27/pope-wants-other-groups-held-accountable-for-abuse/ VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI insisted yesterday that all of society's institutions and not just the Catholic church must be held to "exacting" standards in their response to sex abuse of children and defended the church's efforts to confront the problem. Benedict acknowledged in remarks to visiting U.S. bishops during an audience at the Vatican that pedophilia was a "scourge" for society and that decades of scandals over clergy abusing children had left Catholics in the United States bewildered. "It is my hope that the church's conscientious efforts to confront this reality will help the broader community to recognize the causes, true extent and devastating consequences of sexual abuse, and to respond effectively to this scourge, which affects every level of society," he said. "By the same token, just as the church is rightly held to exacting standards in this regard, all other institutions, without exception, should be held to the same standards," the pope said. An official of a U.S. group advocating for victims of clergy abuse lamented that Benedict, with his remarks, was setting a "terrible example" for bishops. "No public figure talks more about child safety but does little to actually make children safer than Pope Benedict," David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, told The Associated Press in an emailed statement. "The pope would have us believe that this crisis is about sex abuse. It isn't. It is about covering up sex abuse," Clohessy said. "And while child sex crimes happen in every institution, in no institution are they ignored or concealed as consistently as in the Catholic church." But the most high-profile sex abuse case in the United States at the moment doesn't involve the church. Penn State University's former defensive football coordinator Jerry Sandusky has been charged with sexually abusing eight boys, and the fallout has led to the firing of longtime coach Joe Paterno and the departure of university president Graham Spanier. An advocacy group for those who have been sexually abused cited the Penn State scandal in its scathing criticism of the pope. "It takes hubris for Pope Benedict to tell his bishops that the Catholic Church has led in the fight against sexual abuse of children," said Kristine Ward of the National Survivor Advocates Coalition.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.