Experts Predict He'll Keep Post
By Marie Szaniszlo
Boston Herald
March 28, 2010
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/international/general/view/20100328pope_benedict_xvi_under_fire_amid_fresh_scandal_experts_predict_hell_keep_post/srvc=home&position=also
BOSTON (MA) -- The clergy sex-abuse scandal that has landed on Pope Benedict XVI's doorstep in recent weeks has yet to produce a smoking gun implicating the pontiff, a theologian said yesterday, making the Pope's departure very unlikely.
But the distance between Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Pope's name when he headed the Archdiocese of Munich, and Cardinal Bernard F. Law, the Boston cleric who quit after revelations that he moved a pedophile priest from one parish to another, is narrowing, said Stephen Pope, professor of moral theology at Boston College.
 |
| BENEDICT’S BURDEN: The moral authority of the Pope is being questioned in the wake of new sex-abuse allegations throughout Europe. |
"Both men tended to treat sexual abuse as a sin rather than as a crime," Pope said. Still, the mushrooming sex-abuse scandal is "extremely" unlikely to result in Benedict's resignation or ouster. At the end of the day, the Pope himself calls the Vatican shots.
But for Bernie McDaid, a Peabody clergy victim who was invited to a secret meeting with Pope Benedict in Washington, D.C., two years ago, the fresh scandals make that ballyhooed get-together hollow.
"I knew time would tell - and here we are, nothing's been done," said McDaid, 54. "What we knew in 2002 in Boston is now what's happening in Europe. It's always been about the church, the money, the lawyers - never about the victims."
Professor Pope said the sex-abuse scandal will not abate. The crisis "seems not to be contained and not something the church has been able to get ahead of," he said. "What hasn't changed a bit is the institutional self-protection and the lack of accountability. Never underestimate the ability of the Vatican to circle the wagons."
John Allen, author of "The Rise of Benedict XVI," also said resignation appears inconceivable.
"There's no mechanism in the Catholic Church that would force the Pope to resign," Allen said. "It has to be his own free choice, and that is extremely unlikely. There's never been a case of a pope resigning amidst a scandal."
"The irony of the revelations is that prior to this, Benedict had a reputation as a reformer when it came to the issue of sexual abuse," Allen said. He was the first pope to break the victims' "wall of silence," meeting with McDaid, Olan Horne, 50, of Westfield, and others from the Bay State in Washington.
"What this calls into question is his personal moral authority," Allen said. "Simply pointing the finger at the media isn't going to cut it. What people are waiting for is a clear acknowledgement that even if he didn't know, they happened on his watch, he takes responsibility for them and learns the lesson of what went wrong.
A "powerful" gesture, Allen said, would be to meet with the victims of the now-deceased priest at the center of the scandal in Germany.
The Vatican said yesterday that attacks on the church over its handling of abuse cases have been harmful but insisted the Pope's authority had not been weakened.
Instead, the Vatican spokesman said, Pope Benedict XVI's authority and the commitment of the Vatican doctrinal and disciplinary office "have been confirmed in their support and guidance to bishops to combat and root out the blight of abuse wherever it appears."
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.