Pope Benedict XVI has spoken out. Two weeks before the beginning of his trip to the United States, his spokesperson Federico Lombardi S.J. said the pope would tackle the delicate issue of the pedophile priests, who have brought the Catholic church into disrepute since 2003.
And shortly before the papal airplane took off from Rome on Tuesday, US Curia Cardinal John Patrick Foley, said a mea culpa certainly wouldn't be out of place, because "it's the church and not the media that is to blame" for the scandal.
The pope was only expected to mention the matter during a mass at Saint Patrick Cathedral in New York on Saturday. But instead he made an earlier statement during the flight at an impromptu press conference with the journalists traveling with him. He condemned the paedophile scandal with characteristic clarity as "painful and a great shame both for the United States church as a whole and myself personally". He said he had carefully read files containing the experiences of children abused by priests and announced measures to prevent something like this ever happening again in the future. In Washington, he spoke to 400 bishops on Wednesday. The highly-charged issue came to the front once again.
"Among the counter-signs to the gospel of life found in America and elsewhere is one that causes deep shame: the sexual abuse of minors."
Resolute
This time the Pope pointed the finger to the pornography and violence which confronts society through the media. He believes priests that indulge in paedophilia should be resolutely removed from office. This goes against previous policy (particularly in the US) where priests unmasked as paedophiles have up to now simply been discreetly transferred. The pope stressed the need to help victims and to vet young men entering the seminary for devoutness and chastity: "It is more important to have good priests than many priests."
By calling a spade a spade, the pope hopes to improve the Catholic church's bruised image in the United States. His reasons for doing so may not just be spiritual. Although only 24 percent of Americans - 70 million - are Catholic, the American archdiocese is the richest in the world and as such is the Vatican's main financier. However, this position is under threat as a result of claims for compensation from paedophile victims which have already cost the US diocese a half a billion dollars. Because of this alone a repetition has to be avoided at all costs. In addition, attempts have been made to bring charges against the Vatican and the pope himself. But up to now, US judges have dismissed such accusations. And they are even less likely to declare them admissible now that the pope has spoken out so resolutely.
Conservative views
The papal trip to the US is also meant as an introduction of Pope Benedict XVI to the US, after a survey revealed that 80 percent of Americans and 63 percent of Catholics in the country have no idea who he actually is. In spite of his impopular conservative views, the Vatican believes that the plain-speaking church leader will win sympathy in the land of straight talking. This could definitively patch up the rift between Washington and Rome after Pope John Paul II strongly opposed the war in Iraq five years ago. His successor no longer opposes a US military presence in Iraq, as protector of the Christian minority under the threat of Muslim extremists.
Vatican expert Sandro Magister points out that the number of Catholics is growing in the US, in the South in particular, as a consequence of immigration from Latin America. As a result the pope appointed a Texan bishop cardinal last year for the first time. Besides, religious sentiment is more apparent in the US than in Europe, which Pope Benedict XVI recently described as "profane and hedonistic". For example the diocese of Denver has welcomed 2000 new converts this year alone. This makes America a promising mission country and well worth a visit.
*RNW translation (nc)
Source: Radio Netherlands
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