"Many of you have spoken to me of the enormous pain that your communities have suffered when clerics have betrayed their priestly obligations and duties by such gravely immoral behavior," the pope said in an address to the nation's bishops at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. "It is your God-given responsibility as pastors to bind up the wounds caused by every breach of trust, to foster healing, to promote reconciliation and to reach out with loving concern to those so seriously wronged."
For if a bishop fails in that responsibility, he runs the risk of bad press until he reaches the mandatory retirement age. The article then goes back to the White House welcoming ceremony, where our Pope addressed some other issues. The article quotes him most extensively on the scandal. It also gives some background.
Benedict's trip is the first visit by a pope to the U.S. since the sex abuse scandal erupted six years ago in Boston, where a judge released documents from civil lawsuits showing that Cardinal Bernard Law and his subordinate bishops had knowingly shuffled pedophile priests from parish to parish without notifying parishioners or even pastors. Law resigned as Boston's archbishop in the scandal's wake but remains a cardinal, posted in Rome.
As the saying goes, over there so not over here.
Update: Mark Stricherz at Get Religion, B16: Adding angles to the pope’s visit and B16: The seventh storyline — sex abuse.
"Trust must be regained...." pope tells bishops. How come Bishop Sklba is the lead figure as the pope meets with Interfaith leaders. Sklba is a man who has protected COUNTLESS pedophiles, not to mention Weakland's love affair. How much has he cost this archdiocese? How do we ever "regain trust?"
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