The Sex Abuse Scandal

If you have any familiarity with the news these days, you might be aware that stories are circulating about Pope Benedict XVI having some sort of culpability in the sex abuse scandals that continue to come to light world-wide. Understand first of all that I am no denier- I believe that very bad stuff has happened and that some priests and some bishops around the world and over the course of many, many years have done some pretty shameful things- evil things even. Child molestation is one of those evil things. I absolutely support punishing guilty people for such things- no special favors, no passes, no excuses.  I am not interested in protecting anyone who is guilty.

Who is guilty?  The pope?  Doubt it.  Highly doubt it!  And yet, it seems to be getting a lot of press these days with some people even getting attention to their cries for him to resign, be arrested and tried for crimes against humanity.  Whoa.

I've been reading articles and listening to the news reports.  Even more so in the last few weeks I've been actively searching for articles and news reports- not just waiting to see them.  In all that time I've not found anything that points to the pope being dirty on any of this- quite the opposite actually.  Many things that I've found have pointed to the fact that Pope Benedict, in his previous position as Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith did a lot to make sure that sex abuse was being dealt with openly, that church authorities were cooperating with civil authorities and that policies and proceedures were being put in place to effectively combat the issue of sexual abuse in the Church.

So many of us tend to buy the news hook, line and sinker without asking critical questions.  Have you ever stopped to wonder we don't hear about sex abuse problems amongst the clergy of other Christian denominations and leaders of other religions?  Sex abuse happens there too- and some studies indicate comparable numbers.

Anyway, the point of all this is to say that we should be in the habit of asking deeper questions.  It also matters where you get your information from- News Channel X and On-Line Newsource Y may indeed be reputable and good, but for a matter of Catholic stuff better yet might be the Vatican News Service or ZENIT.