The Great Debate UK
from FaithWorld:
Focus turns to pope as German, Dutch sex abuse scandals unfold
Pope Benedict XVI in the Saint Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, 2 Feb 2010/Max Rossi
The more the scandal of Catholic priests sexually abusing boys in Germany spreads, the more the focus turns to Rome to see how Pope Benedict reacts. The story is getting ever closer to the German-born pope, even though he has been quite outspoken denouncing these scandals and had just met all Irish bishops to discuss the scandals shaking their country. Nobody's saying he had any role in the abuse cases now coming to light in Germany. But the fact that some took place in Regensburg while he was a prominent theologian there, that his brother Georg has admitted to smacking lazy members of his choir there and that Benedict was archbishop in Munich from 1977 to 1982 lead to the classic cover-up question: what did he know and when did he know it?
This is only the start of what can be a long, drawn out and possibly damaging story for Benedict's PR-deficient papacy. His crises to date have been linked to his statements or decisions, such as the controversial Regensburg speech that offended Muslims or several run-ins with Jews over restoring old prayers they consider anti-Semitic or rehabilitating an ultra-traditionalist priest who is also a Holocaust denier. But now it's about what he did or didn't do in the past and how he moves to avoid further scandals in the future.
Stimmen der Zeit, March 2010 edition
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says that if anyone leads innocent children to sin, "it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea."
