Pope complains about sex abuse investigation in Belgium

By Michael J.W. Stickings

From the AP:

The pope on Sunday called the raids carried out by Belgian police investigating priestly sex abuse "deplorable" and asserted the right of the Catholic Church to investigate abuse alongside civil law enforcement authorities.

Pope Benedict XVI issued a message Sunday to the head of the Belgian bishops' conference, Monsignor Andre-Joseph Leonard, expressing his solidarity with all Belgian bishops "in this sad moment."

The June 24 raids targeted the home and office of a retired archbishop and also the graves of two prelates. The Vatican has slowly ratcheted up its criticism of the searches, with the Vatican No. 2 on Saturday complaining they were unprecedented even under communism.

On Sunday, Benedict took the criticism to a new level, issuing a personal message of support to the Belgian bishops for the "surprising and deplorable way" in which the raids were carried out.

I understand where Benedict is coming from -- it's called circling the wagons, and he wants to be in control -- but the Roman Catholic Church and its Dear Leader don't exactly have a great deal of credibility on this issue, or scandal, and can't exactly be trusted to conduct a proper investigation. If anything, all they'd find, and hand to civil authorities, are a few scapegoats. They are all about self-preservation, after all, not justice. (And don't tell me they're about divine justice. There's no need for any more nonsense, and the Church's historical myth of absolute righteousness is very much part of the problem here, with the Church essentially holding that it can do no wrong.)

Otherwise, this is just typical, the same old unwillingness to accept responsibility for what has happened in the Church, and for the horrors that priests have inflicted, mostly on young boys. And, lest we forget, sex abuse is a crime, and civil authorities have every right to investigate and prosecute.

If Benedict really wants to see what's deplorable, he need look no further than the actions of some of his own priests, not to mention the actions of those higher up who have covered up the abuse.