UNITED STATES
SNAP Wisconsin
Benedict Resigns: removing all known child sex offenders from the priesthood, firing bishops who conspired in covered-ups, must be new Pope’s first act
Statement by Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director
CONTACT: 414.429.7259
Pope Benedict, who announced today he will resign on February 28, will leave his tenure as Pope without having made the one, simple moral and executive decision that would have, in a single stroke of his pen, protected potentially millions of children from harm, brought justice to hundreds of thousands of victims, and finally turned the church on a path towards true recovery and reform: worldwide zero tolerance of child sex abuse by priests.
Because he never issued this decree, Benedict leaves office not only with countless children at risk around the world but scores of Cardinals and bishops in leadership positions who are actively covering up child sex abuse.
Amazingly, across the world today, although there was a modification in church law allowed by the Vatican for the United States, if you are a priest and have been found by your bishop to have raped or sexually assaulted a child, you can remain in the priesthood and in ministry, your crimes left secret and unpunished.
No other profession working with children in civil society today formally allows for this bizarre possibility under their occupational rules. Tragically, this makes the priesthood, in some ways, the most dangerous such occupation for children across the globe. Tragic and unnecessary, since obviously the vast majority of priests never harm a child and serve and support the children in their ministry admirably.
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