Pope Benedict XVI's recent pastoral letter to the Irish Bishops regarding clerical sex abuse, in which he apologised to victims of child abuse by priests in Ireland, has been described as very strong and clear. He expressed shame and remorse for the suffering caused and pointed to a misplaced concern among senior clerics "for the reputation of the Church and the avoidance of scandal". He did not make any excuses and gave an explicit idea as to how the Church should react in the present crisis.
The document was still fresh in everybody's mind when the Pope himself became the target of a "cover up" allegation, strongly denied by the Holy See, stemming from the US. It was claimed that although, in 1996, archbishops had complained about an American priest accused of abusing up to 200 deaf boys from the 1950s to the 1970s, and their complaints went to a Vatican office led by then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, they received no response. However, an editorial in the Vatican newspaper l'Osservatore Romano was quick to state that there was clearly an ignoble attempt to strike at Pope Benedict and his closest aides at any cost.
On Palm Sunday, the Pope, although not directly referring to the scandal, spoke of the courage, conveyed by faith in God, not to allow oneself to be intimidated by the "petty gossip of dominant opinion". He also said that man sometimes sank "into the swamp of sin and dishonesty".
The Church knows very well that the abuse which has caused the crisis she faces is criminal and abhorrent. Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict have both shown that they were deeply grieved by the fact that priests and religious, whose vocation it is to help people live holy lives in the sight of God, have themselves caused suffering and scandal to the young. They have both expressed their profound sense of solidarity and concern to the victims and their families, wherever they may be.
Even so, the Church continues to face a difficult and complex situation. The international media's focus on this issue has led certain Catholic quarters to suspect a sort of "conspiracy" against it. The general feeling in the Catholic world in fact appears to be that the wrongdoing and the harm caused by a small minority of priests is being used to undermine the reputations of the overwhelming majority of clergy who live holy, honest, quiet lives of service, and to discredit the Church's "powerful moral voice" in public debate.
Because of the great harm done by these few priests and religious, the Church herself is viewed with distrust and many are offended at the way in which her leaders in certain countries responded to allegations of paedophilia. The Church must now convince those who have lost trust in it that, by the alertness and prompt action of its senior clergy in the present and future, its critics will not again have cause to accuse it of child abuse cover-up. The local Curia's reply to questions put to it by this newspaper, carried today, goes some way towards achieveing that.
While denouncing all the misconduct within her fold, the Church is emphasising, and rightly so, that one should not forget the immense spiritual, human and social good that the vast majority of priests and religious all over the world have done and are still doing. She needs to work hard to drive home the message that, as John Paul II once put it, a great work of art may be blemished, but its beauty remains.