Vatican V: Is the pope a criminal?

Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, two outspoken atheists and critics of religion in general, have entered the debate over the pedophile cover-up scandal swirling around Pope Benedict. They are working with British lawyers to explore the possibility of charging the pope with "crimes against humanity" for his role in the coverups.

I think that's going a bit too far. But the NYT reports that one of the church's own priests, the Rev. James Scahill of Massachusetts, delivered a "scathing homily" about the situation and called on the pope to resign.

"We must personally and collectively declare that we very much doubt the veracity of the pope and those of church authority who are defending him or even falling on the sword on his behalf. . . . It is beginning to become evident that for decades, if not centuries, church leadership covered up the abuse of children and minors to protect its institutional image and the image of priesthood."

He added:

"And if by any slimmest of chance the pope and all his bishops didn't know -- they all should resign on the basis of sheer and complete ignorance, incompetence and irresponsibility."

It will be interesting and instructive to see how the Vatican responds to Father Scahill, who has long been a critic of the way the abuse scandal has been handled by the Church.

As to the pope's involvement himself, evidence to date at most faults him for inaction and delay and for putting the interest of the church ahead of those of the victims; but one can also argue that in some cases that allowed for further abuse by accused priests who remained priests. Unlike Dawkins and Hitchens, I see this not as crime by the pope but as dereliction of responsibilty. That itself could be grounds for resignation, especially when it is on the scale and depth of this magnitude.

The strongest argument for him to resign, however, remains Richard's (comment to my 3/28 blog). By doing so, Benedict would symbolically take upon himself the collective sins of the church and its priests and pay the price by sacrificial resignation, thus opening the path to reconciliation and healing for the church and its parishioners. Nothing less seems to be working, and the outrage continues to build as more and more evidence emerges of coverup and delay and of failing to perceive their own tone-deafness.

Ralph