Pope: Sex abuse is "scourge" for all society
Pope Benedict XVI prepares to board his plane at the airport in Cotonou, Benin on Sunday, Nov. 20, 2011. / AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell
VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI insisted on Saturday 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.
The pedophile scandal has exploded in recent decades in the United States, but similar clergy sex abuse revelations have tainted the church in many other countries, including Mexico, Ireland, and several other European nations, including Italy.
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.
College football in the U.S. is highly popular. The scandal has shaken the reputation of a college program that long had prided itself on integrity.
Benedict didn't address accusations by many victims and their advocates that church leaders, including at the office in the Vatican that Benedict headed before becoming pontiff, systematically tried to cover up the scandals, and that they have rarely been held accountable for that.
Investigations, often by civil authorities, revealed that church hierarchy frequently transferred pedophile priests from one parish to another.
Benedict told the bishops that his papal pilgrimage to the United States in 2008 "was intended to encourage the Catholics of America in the wake of the scandal and disorientation caused by the sexual abuse crisis of recent decades."
Echoing sentiment he has expressed in occasional meetings with victims of the abuse on trips abroad, Benedict added: "I wish to acknowledge personally the suffering inflicted on the victims and the honest efforts made to ensure both the safety of our children and to deal appropriately and transparently with allegations as they arise."
Benedict seemed to be reflecting some churchmen's contentions that the church has wrongly been singled out as villains for the abuse.
The bishops were making periodic consultations with the Vatican, scheduled for every five years.
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There isn't one. It is its own category of evil.
It wouldn't be criticized half as much if it just admitted that it's nothing but a run of the mill human institution, no better or worse than any other! If ANYTHING, it is not BETTER, but WORSE than many another human institution, as I show at http://JesusWouldBeFurious.Org/
Ray Dubuque,a one time priest and seminary professor who escaped the corruption 40 years ago.
http://meninmytown.wordpress.com/2011/11/17/keith-smith-stranger-abduction-sexual-assault-survivor-and-child-safety-expert-shares-5-steps-you-can-take-to-keep-kids-safe/
What the Catholic Church has to do:
-Surrender the list of all past and present pedophile priests in the Church to the law enforcement of all countries involved;
-Remove all priest pedophiles immediately and make cash reserves for the damages to the lives of the children;
-Enumerate the Church's "exacting" standards in their response to the sex abuse of children. These standards must be higher than those countries that are lax in applying the law (no hiding under the same standards...);
-Next time choose a woman Pope that is more sympathetic to the plights of the young;
-Let priest get married (homosexuals also) and have families of their own.
This is what the Church has to do!
When these criminals are also arrested and held for trial, then we can all believe that justice is finally being done.
No public figure talks more about child safety but does little to actually make children safer than Pope Benedict.
The pope would have us believe this crisis is about child sex abuse. It isn't. It's about covering up child sex abuse. And while child sex crimes happen in every institution, in no institution are they ignored or concealed as consistently as in the Catholic church.
The pope is again setting a terrible example for the world' bishops, echoing the claim by some of them that the church hierarchy is somehow being picked on by the public, the press and their parishioners.
Regarding child sexual abuse and cover up, the pope doesn't like his organization being "singled out." But his managerial staff has done that, by refusing, for decades, to protect kids instead of predators.
Standards should be fair. But the pope should be honest. His institution has overseen and continues to oversee the most widespread and devastating cover up of child sex crimes across the globe.