PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News
Ronnie Polaneczky, Daily News Columnist
Posted: Tuesday, February 12, 2013
IF I’M EVER elected pope – a long shot for a female, nonpracticing Catholic – I would never resign from the position the way Pope Benedict XVI has done after fewer than eight years on the job.
The pontiff cites his age, faltering health and decreasing stamina as reasons for handing over his staff and crown. But if I were pope, I wouldn’t care how creaky, pooped or mentally goofy I was becoming. I’d hang on to those red slippers until my last breath.
That’s how badly I want to be infallible. …
Pedophile priests wouldn’t have been secretly moved from parish to parish like Parcheesi pieces because one of those parents would’ve said, “If we don’t do something about this now, the next kid who’s hurt might be mine.”
Pope Benedict could’ve used his nearly eight years of infallibility to open all church records to the light of day, to come clean about the extent of the cover-up and let the chips fall where they would’ve. And he’d have an easy answer to those who might’ve implicated him in the cover-up, back in the days when he was a cardinal.
“I was fallible then. And now I’m not.”
See how well this thing works?
Pope Benedict will step down on Feb. 28. That gives him 16 more days of infallibility – time in which he can act without worrying about “even the possibility of error.” I can think of no better way to use his time than to honor a request of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.
In a statement released Monday, its founders called upon the pope to take meaningful action on behalf of victims of priest sex crimes.
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