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	The Prada Pope By Eric F. Mallonga Manila Times April 21, 2008 http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2008/apr/21/yehey/opinion/20080421opi5.html CARDINAL JOSEF RATZINGER, now Pope Benedict XVI, has been playfully dubbed the "Prada Pope" after the supposed maker of the ruby red shoes he has been wearing to his most important events since he ascended St. Peters throne in 2005. Theology Professor Lawrence Cunningham of Notre Dame explains that red shoes commemorate the blood of martyrdom. In wearing them, the Pope wishes to demonstrate the continuity of his reign as Catholic Pontiff with the symbols and history of the church, a church that was founded upon the supreme sacrifice of a crucified Jesus Christ and upon the sacrifice of slaughtered apostles and disciples, who lived and died in the imitation of Christ. But it takes more than just wearing red shoes to demonstrate the values and tradition of a church founded upon the charity and compassion of the greatest Man who ever walked this earth. In his recent sojourn to the US, the Catholic Pontiff has precisely undertaken what we would expect from a compassionate and loving Pope in the imitation of Jesus Christ: he has denounced clerical pedophilia. He has expressed heartfelt apologies to the victims and committed to pursue meaningful atonement for this great shame that compares with the infamous Papal Inquisitions, the Christian Crusades, and the Church tolerance of Hitlers Final Solution. Previously, the Vatican policy was to merely transfer clerical pedophiles from one Catholic parish to another, which allowed the continuation of the commission of sexual abuse of children in those various parishes. It has been happening here in the Philippines as well. Catholic priests who have been abusing children are merely transferred to different parishes as if the matter of clerical pedophilia could be resolved by a mere transfer from one jurisdiction to another. Pope Benedict now declares: "I am deeply ashamed, and we will do what is possible so this cannot happen again in the future . . . We will absolutely exclude pedophiles from the sacred ministry. It is more important to have good priests than many priests. We will do everything possible to heal this wound." The papal admission is crucial because it demolishes the amorphous characterization of the problem and clarifies its possible solutions. In acknowledging the existence of sexual abuse committed by Catholic priests on innocent children, the Pope now realizes that there must be strong and pro-active measures taken to resolve the problem. A huge part of that problem are the bishops and cardinals who have tolerated errant clergymen in their continuing ministry and service. But complicity of the Catholic hierarchy in the commission of child sexual abuses is precisely what the Holy Father wishes to resolve. Hence, he has committed to exclude pedophiles from the priesthood. Catholic bishops and cardinals themselves will have to actively terminate Catholic priests engaging in such heinous and abominable crimes. And if the Catholic bishops and cardinals are themselves pedophiles, then they will have to resign their positions. Wonderfully, the Pontiff has also apologized to the weeping victims of clergy sex abuse in a Vatican Embassy chapel in the United States. We are all humbled by the Popes compassionate gesture. It is an elating turn-around from the Popes reported earlier refusal to even accede to an audience with three victims of Catholic priests, a refusal immortalized in the documentary "Deliver Us From Evil." What the Pope must now realize is that clerical pedophilia is not just sexual abuse but also spiritual abuse. As survivor Bernie McDaid says, when a priest abuses a child, the traumatized and offended innocent child victim loses a sense of moral right as the priest who claims moral ascendancy confuses the child with his clerical immorality. The papal meeting and his apology are positive steps in the right direction. Anger, bitterness, alienation, increasing hatred and violence against the Catholic Church had actually been the consequential results of a Pontiff that once refused to confront the problem of clerical pedophilia. It is sincerely hoped that our Catholic Pontiff will continue building upon our church and show the world that he is personally bound to the bedrock ethical and moral principles which he proclaims in the Vatican. He must show the world that the human rights agenda he pushes with the leaders of other faiths and international governments is a human rights agenda that even the Catholic Church applies to Catholic clergy and its followers. He must continue to prove that his beliefs in the sacredness of human life encompasses the sacredness of the victims of clerical pedophiles. Finally, it is certainly hoped that the title of the movie "The Devil Wears Prada" is not in any clear reference to the Catholic Pontiff, who has began his own personal redemption in this historical visit to America. The Pope must constantly renew his commitment in the path of Christ, whether or not he wears red Prada shoes, seize upon the opportunities presented by his historic actions, and refrain from being complacent upon the hope that salvation is always available anyway. In the end, red Prada shoes are irrelevant and immaterial to the Christian ministry because all of us"along with the Pope and the clerics"will be judged by the fullness, and consistency, of our adherence to charity and compassion. ericmallonga@yahoo.com
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