Word: vaticans
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...Vatican official - a Spanish priest - whom I like and respect told me that as he walked down the street this week, someone shouted "Porco!" ("Pig!") at him from a passing car. Other priests say they can no longer hug children in their parishes. This is just one of the unfortunate outcomes of the sex-abuse controversy that has enveloped the Roman Catholic Church...
...going to continue to be a major story - and it should be. Some supporters of Pope Benedict XVI note that sex abuse of children is by no means a problem afflicting only the Catholic Church and have alleged media bias in the coverage of the issue. In fact, the Vatican singled out the New York Times for such coverage. But most journalists and non-Catholics derive no satisfaction at all from seeing these events unfold. The horror at the victims' suffering drives the narrative. But this is also a tale of human failings - both moral and administrative - by some...
Benedict's defenders are mostly right that as a senior Vatican Cardinal, Joseph Ratzinger was ahead of his colleagues in Rome in responding to the crisis, and that as Pope, he has said and done the right things, including his unprecedented meeting with sex-abuse victims on that U.S. trip. But Benedict's leadership on the sex-abuse crisis - and beyond - now hinges on an earlier chapter in his career. In 1980, an admitted child-molester priest was transferred to the Munich archdiocese, which was then headed by Ratzinger. Though Church officials say the future Pope personally approved...
Whether or not the Vatican's version of the facts is entirely convincing, papal "plausible deniability" - as communicated by aides - is not the kind of leadership this crisis requires. What happened in Munich, with or without Ratzinger's direct knowledge, is exactly the sort of inbred administrative failing that propelled a similar scandal in Boston nine years ago, which the Pope himself referred to in his recent letter to the Irish faithful...
...Pope's spokesman, who juggles his current responsibilities with his previous job of running Vatican radio and television services, understands the broader perspective of his work - and perhaps the limits of his ability to effect change. Says Lombardi: "My role is to try to help the world to understand the reality of the church, which is a very different entity than a typical multinational company or organization. Its character is that of a spiritual governance." That kind of otherworldliness is fine. But, says a senior Vatican official, "you can only have so much insulation of the Pope from those...