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	What Will the Good Men of the Church Do Now? By Mary Sanchez Belleville News-Democrat March 26, 2010 http://www.bnd.com/2010/03/26/1190261/what-will-the-good-men-of-the.html UNITED STATES -- Once upon a time, my hair would be pulled taut each morning into pigtails, I'd don my plaid pleated skirt, and happily trot off to my parochial school, where dedicated nuns impressed upon me and my peers the basics of right and wrong. Things were simple in my world of Catholicism. Mind your mother. Don't fight with your brothers. Say your prayers. And if you do find yourself in error, fess up quickly. Correct the situation. This was the path God wanted of his children. Years later, this ex-Catholic school pupil is having a hard time reconciling these basic moral teachings with the behavior of a lot of high prelates of the church, including the pope himself. Pope Benedict XVI has now been personally implicated in the ever-broadening scandal of child molestation by priests. Specifically, Benedict is under scrutiny for failing as an archbishop to discipline and remove from the ministry a German priest later convicted of molesting boys. Inexplicably, the priest was allowed to continue serving in the Archdiocese of Munich, which the future pope oversaw as Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger. Later, Ratzinger headed the Vatican office charged with adjudicating sexual abuse cases that also violated canon law, but failed to pursue such a case against the German priest - and against how many others, one has to wonder. Only this month was the Munich priest suspended, more than two decades after being convicted. That final acknowledgement came as the Pope issued a letter to Catholics in Ireland apologizing for freshly discovered church cover-ups there. And now Benedict is being criticized in relation to a pedophilia case in the U.S. The New York Times has reported on documents concerning the case of a Wisconsin priest believed to have molested more than 200 deaf boys. Posted online, the papers include testimonies in which victims detail how they were lured to the priest's quarters and fondled or assaulted while in confession. Since the Rev. Lawrence C. Murphy used the confessional for sexual misconduct, a canon law case was brought against him. "I simply want to live out the time that I have left in the dignity of my priesthood," Murphy wrote in 1998 to the future pope, basically pleading to be left to reconcile his acts only before God. Murphy got his wish, although there is no letter of reply from Ratzinger. Canon law proceedings against him were ended. He died in 1998, never having been convicted or defrocked, and was buried in his vestments. The ministrations of the church were never sufficient to fix these crimes. Prayer, for its abundant power, needed an assist from the criminal courts but seldom got it, if the church hierarchy had anything to do with it. Repeatedly it seems, canon law trials and internal discipline procedures were used to shield the church from lawsuits and public outcry, rather than coincide with criminal and civil prosecution. I am no longer a member of the Catholic Church, yet I cringe at the thought that many will use these latest revelations to denounce the church as an entirely corrupt structure. Much has been done in recent years to institute zero-tolerance for newfound abuse, to apologize, settle lawsuits and sift seminarians so that pedophiles will not find refuge in the church. And Pope Benedict has been instrumental in changing the Vatican's attitude in this beneficial direction. Nonetheless, it's clear that bishops and others in the hierarchy have been reluctant to take responsibility. The sad and horrifying revelations keep coming. My parochial school instruction ended by the third grade, a casualty of family finances. I was much older when I learned some of the darker truths about morality and those charged with upholding it. One such insight was put pretty well by English philosopher Edmund Burke: "The only thing necessary for the triumph (of evil) is for good men to do nothing." For too long, the leaders of the Catholic Church, good and bad, have done nothing. We can only hope that these latest humiliations will spur Pope Benedict and other church authorities to seek above all to do what is right for the victims of abuse, even if it opens the door to lawsuits and more severe consequences for clerical abusers.
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