DR. JACK R. VAN ENS, AUTHOR

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POPE SIDESTEPS A MAJOR SIN FOR PEDOPHILES' SINS

Like the earthquake striking Michigan where I visited last week, Pope Benedict XVI released positive tremors of seismic proportions when he repeatedly denounced priestly sex-abusers. Over 45,000 faithful followers jammed into Washington D.C.'s Nationals Park for Mass heard the Pontiff face head-on the pedophile scandal in the Roman Catholic Church. But did the Pope sidestep cleaning house in the Vatican over this sordid mess?

Recently, the Church reported how widespread sexual abuse permeated ordained ranks. More than 5,000 priests had taken indecent liberties with more than 14,000 children and teens. Facing stern consequences of these sins has cost the Roman Catholic Church big bucks. Some dioceses went bankrupt. Priests have been judged criminals and sent to prison. Litigation and defense fees skyrocketed, costing the Church $2 billion.

The Pope in his homily at Nationals Park didn't verbally finesse child abuse within clerical ranks. He admitted it happened over several years and was evil, destroying young lives. Priests sinned when, in positions of trust, took advantage of parishioners. They showed signs of being mentally warped, really sick. Such criminals wearing liturgical colors fell short of the standard the Bible sets for those ordained to Christ's ministry. Grooming his young protégé for leadership in the church, the Apostle Paul challenged Timothy, "...to set the believers an example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith and purity..." ( I Timothy 4:12).

Before an altar in the baseball stadium, the Pope challenged Roman Catholics to open wide doors to "healing and reconciliation." He urged the faithful as friends and confidantes to come alongside those still reeling from clergy sexual abuse. "Assist those who have been hurt," the rather shy pope adamantly proclaimed. "No words of mine could describe the damage that has occurred within the community of the church," the Pope confessed.

He juggled his tight schedule at the baseball stadium. After Mass he and Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley met five or six victims for 25 minutes in the chapel of the papal embassy. O'Malley had briefed the Pope on how this immorality had ravaged the Boston Archdiocese he heads. A notebook given the Pope Benedict listed upwards of 1000 victims.

The Pope assured these violated people of his prayers covering their needs, as well as offering supplications for families and others clergy predators victimized. Brushing aside tears, these crushed souls spent precious moments one-on-one with their Holy Father.

Yes, Pope Benedict identified sins some perverted priests committed against youth entrusted to their care. But he only obliquely referred to a major sin when he assured his followers the Vatican had instigated and completed "great efforts to deal honestly and fairly with this tragic situation, and to insure that children ... can grow up in a safe environment." The Pope recognized the need for moral reformation in Roman Catholic parishes. But he avoided the Vatican's direct culpability in badly handling this mess.

Pedophile priests are guilty. But what burden of remorse and reform will the Vatican shoulder?

The Vatican didn't police its own. Hierarchs transferred wayward priests to other parishes or quietly retired them, letting rumors of sexual irregularities fade away. Avoiding this major sin of sexual abuse among Roman Catholic clergy occurred under Pope Benedict XVI's watch before he was elected pontiff.

Remember how the Vatican gently slapped the soiled hands of Boston's former Archbishop Bernard Law? His reprimand for malfeasance, allowing priests to continue ministry even when Church officials knew of their sexual molestation, consisted of a promotion. Law begrudgingly transferred to another parish Fr. John Geoghan only after he had raped seven boys. The Vatican kicked Law upstairs in Rome, blessing him with a coveted seat on the Pontifical Council for the Family! Talk about a wolf in the henhouse.

No wonder the Pope didn't dwell on the Vatican's major sin of covering up sexual abuse. As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he led a Vatican office sorting truth from fiction in complaints against clergy. While American bishops looked the other way as clergy abuse mounted, Ratzinger mimicked them. He didn't enforce purity codes.

Evidently, the Vatican covets its secretive cover, hid under ecclesiastical machinery too heavy to reform quickly. Prelates played the game of acting as if cases of priestly sexual abuse were phantoms of overly ripe imaginations.

Some canon lawyers who investigate the Vatican's labyrinthine protocols tell us Cardinal Ratzinger had the authority to reform canon law, relax statutes of limitation for prosecution against sex crimes, defrock abusive priests and fire bishops who sniffed at abuse but didn't root it out.

It's easier to gain plaudits from the media when crimes so crude and rude as sexual abuse of children are publicly pilloried as sins. The Pope scored high marks for accomplishing this goal.