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	Pope, US Bishops Must Follow through on Vow to Prevent Abuse Yakima Herald-Republic April 23, 2008 http://www.yakima-herald.com/stories/3413 How refreshing and encouraging it was to see the leader of the Roman Catholic church publicly, and repeatedly, take on an issue that at the top levels of the church was for so long hidden in the shadows. During his U.S. visit that ended Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI said he was "deeply ashamed" of priest sex abuse scandals that have rocked the church in the United States and pledged greater future efforts to bar pedophiles from the priesthood. The shining moment during his trip happened in Boston — where new revelations of abuse boiled to the surface in 2002 — when he met Thursday with victims of abuse. From all reports, it was an emotional, yet sincere, private session that served notice from the Vatican that victims will not be forgotten. The meeting was requested by Benedict. It followed a morning Mass that Benedict celebrated for about 45,000 people at Nationals Park, the new baseball stadium in Washington, where he told the crowd: "No words of mine could describe the pain and harm inflicted by such abuse. ... Nor can I adequately describe the damage that has occurred within the community of the church." Obviously apologies and regrets alone will not undo the harm. Much more remains to be done to restore confidence in a church hierarchy that once moved offending priests from parish to parish to keep things under wraps. Openness and candor, such as that displayed from the pontiff, are critical to backing up his pledge of a renewed commitment to rid the church of this particular cancer. That will require full cooperation of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and a plan to get this issue, and any others deemed necessary, out of the closet and on the road to development of proper safeguards. Benedict, viewed as a doctrinal hard-liner in the church before his election as pope, now seems to fully gasp of the gravity of the situation and has expressed a willingness to put the power of church leadership behind an initiative to prevent such scandals from happening again. All in all, it was a good trip (his first to this country). Now an anxious flock and rest of the nation wait to see how it will translate into a remedial action that can lead to healing. That will be the true test of its effectiveness.
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