The Case of the Pope - Epilogue

"This book was completed in August 2010, and published in time for the Pope’s visit to Britain the following month. En route, he made his most grovelling apology yet for the damage caused by clerical sex abuse, expressing “deep sorrow” for these “unspeakable crimes”. He made a similar apology at the outset of his visit to Germany in September 2011. But he does not have the moral integrity to take the action that is necessary to cleanse the Catholic church of its stigmata, namely to abjure any role for canon law in dealing with allegations of molestation, and to require bishops and church officials to report them to the police. In truth, Benedict is incapable of understanding the nature of the problem – he is too old, too academic, and too ready to blame anything but Catholic practices for the explosion of sexual abuse within the church. His last Christmas message was to blame it all on pornography, sex tourism and the ‘moral relativism’ of the 70’s: “In the 1970’s, paedophilia was seen as a natural thing for men and children” he said - a preposterous statement, except to the unworldly Cardinals he was addressing(1). For all his fine words about feeling the pain of victims, he still does not get it: the church, by delivering trusting boys from the age of seven to untrustworthy priests who believe – with good reason – that they can get away with abusing them, is guilty of negligence when they do abuse them. By blaming pornography and sex tourism, Benedict excuses their crimes. He lacks the gumption to tell his paedophile priests – as Christ surely did – that they will burn in hell, if they are not first drowned in the depths of the sea." Read complete article.