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	Jesus Gave US the Beatitudes, Benedict Delivers Platitudes By Vinnie Nauheimer Voice from the Desert February 19, 2010 http://reform-network.net/?p=2620 "A man of words and not of deeds is like a garden filled with weeds." wrote the poet Rod McKuen. How applicable is this to today's response to the decades old blind eye given to the rape sodomization and molestation of countless children in Ireland given by the current pontiff. It is also applicable to the last pope who held a summit eerily familiar to the Irish bishops meeting with the current pope which took place eight years ago with the bishops from the United States. There are two common threads: Sexual abuse and Cardinal Ratzinger who was responsible for investigating clergy abuse then, now Pope Benedict. For eight consecutive years, we have had nothing but platitudes from the Vatican. 2001: As Cardinal Ratzinger, Benedict reaffirms the validity of Crimen Sollicitationis which imposes the "Secrets of the Holy Office" on anyone with knowledge of priests violating the confessional or sexually abusing children, which means they are silenced forever. April 2002: Pope JP II calls clergy abuse Mysterium Iniquitous. April 2002: "There is no room in the priesthood for those who would abuse children" Pope JP II April, 2008: "I am deeply ashamed." The words uttered by Benedict on the plane ride over to the United States. July, 2009: At the Catholic World Youth Day in Australia Benedict said, "I ask all of you to support and assist your bishops, and to work together with them in combating this evil. Victims should receive compassion and care, and those responsible for these evils must be brought to justice." December, 2009: Pope Benedict said today after meeting with Irish bishops at the Vatican that he was "deeply disturbed and distressed" and would write a pastoral letter to the people of Ireland February, 2010: "The Holy Father observed that the sexual abuse of children and young people is not only a heinous crime, but also a grave sin which offends God." After hearing these platitudes, we must now ask what adjectives of solace Benedict will offer to the people of Germany when their smoldering clergy abuse scandal burns brightly. Will it be: aghast, appalled, baffled, bewildered, chagrinned, confused…? Because it involves the Jesuits, will he return to the Latin of his predecessor by labeling clergy abuse Mysterium Iniquitous? No need to ask what Jesus would say, He's already said it! Jesus said: "You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophecy of you, when he said: This people honors me with their lips, But their heart is far from me; In vain do they worship me; teaching as doctrines the precepts of man". Matt: 15:7-9, Such is the stuff of platitudes! Benedict's own words betray him for what he is! Before God and man the infallible pope has shown himself a hypocrite. His predecessor JP II said, "There is no room in the church for those who would abuse children." Reporting to Pope John Paul as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, the office that handled all clergy abuse accusations, then Cardinal Ratzinger's record on clergy abuse was abysmal. As a cardinal, he disobeyed and broke his sacred vow to obey the pope in all matters. Cardinal Ratzinger, by ignoring JP II's proclamation, proclaimed to the world that there is room in the priesthood for those who would abuse children by failing to rid the global priesthood of those who did in fact abuse children and those that enabled them. Benedict, in dealing with Ireland, reneged on his own words spoken as pope before God and man when he said, "Those responsible for these evils must be brought to justice." The tragedy, disgrace, and grave scandal that is known as the Irish Clergy Abuse Scandal was an opportunity for the pope to prove himself a man of God as well as a man of his word. By his own words and lack of deeds he has proven to the world he is neither. Therein lies the rub. If he performs the rites of degradation so richly deserved upon certain Irish bishops, then he himself must step down because he too is steeped in the blood of innocent children by his omissions. The Catechism tells us the following: 2326 Scandal is a grave offense when by deed or omission it deliberately leads others to sin gravely. 2287 Anyone who uses the power at his disposal in such a way that it leads others to do wrong becomes guilty of scandal and responsible for the evil that he has directly or indirectly encouraged. "Temptations to sin are sure to come; but woe to him by whom they come!" Canon Law tells us this: Can. 1369 A person is to be punished with a just penalty, who, at a public event or assembly, or in a published writing, or by otherwise using the means of social communication, utters blasphemy, or gravely harms public morals, or rails at or excites hatred of or contempt for religion or the Church. Has Benedict by his commissions and omissions when dealing with the Clergy Abuse Scandal gravely harmed public morals and excited hatred of and contempt for the Church? Can. 1389 § 1 A person who abuses ecclesiastical power or an office, is to be punished according to the gravity of the act or the omission, not excluding by deprivation of the office, unless a penalty for that abuse is already established by law or precept. § 2 A person who, through culpable negligence, unlawfully and with harm to another, performs or omits an act of ecclesiastical power or ministry or office, is to be punished with a just penalty. Common sense tells us that by failing to exercise his ecclesiastical power in refusing to remove the Irish bishops who prolonged the misery of Irish children, the pope has brought immeasurable scandal down upon the church and therefore violated Canon Law. Pity the Catholic laity for having a pope who has brought scandal down upon their church. Pity the Catholic laity for not being able to do anything about it. In the United States, Catholics held hope out; First for the bishops to do the right thing, then for the Cardinals to do the right thing and then for the pope to do the right thing. Catholics around the globe have been waiting and waiting and waiting. The Irish like the Americans and the Canadians and the Australians before them have just found out that nothing is going to happen to those who permitted wolves in collars to prey on the most defenseless of our society, the children. The Catholics of Ireland have just received their Platitudes. One can only imagine how difficult it must be for Catholics to have a pope devoid of personal integrity. A shameless leader who will tell one audience that those who are responsible must be brought to justice and then tell another audience that he is deeply disturbed with no reference to justice and then to tell yet another that it is a lapse in the morals of the times completely ignoring the fifteen hundred year written church history documenting clergy abuse. What is a good Catholic to do? Find solace in the words of the Savior Luke 12: 1- 4: He began to say to his disciples first, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. Whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed upon the housetops. Is there a better passage in all the Gospels than this to describe the Irish Clergy Abuse Scandal? Testimony before Inquiries has come to light. Cover-ups have come to light, complicity has come to light, the rape, sodomization and molestation of children have come to light. The culture of deceit has come to light. This is the fulfillment of the words of Gospel. It is Revelations; those marked with stain of children are the same ones who are marked with the sign of evil. It is time for all to remember that Jesus and his teachings neither abide in pomp and circumstance nor in bricks and mortar, but in the hearts of men and women.
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