On Tuesday, the Pope met with reporters while flying to Portugal. His comments on the child abuse scandal were a clear attempt to shift gears away from the remarks of others who had tried to pin the blame on the news media or enemies of the Roman Catholic Church. Quoted in the New York Times, he said:
Today we see in a really terrifying way that the greatest persecution of the church does not come from the enemies outside, but is born from the sin in the church. The church has a profound need to relearn penance, to accept purification, to learn on the one hand forgiveness but also the necessity of justice.
Steve Benen at Washington Monthly notes that "the pope's comments were unscripted." Not so. In fact, very few of the Pope's remarks on any subject are "unscripted." Reporters travelling with the Pope must file questions in writing in advance. These questions are studied, and responses chosen, with great care. The Pope's remarks might have seemed impromptu, but they were not.
Clearly, the Pope went out of his way to take a different tack. Rather than casting blame outside the church, Benedict said that true responsibility for the scandal must be taken by the church. John Allen, expert on all things Vatican, said, "This is as clear an example of the pope changing the Vatican’s public tone as you’re going to see." The Times report, by Rachel Donadio, summarizes thusly:
His remarks were at once aimed inside the church — a warning to clerics that crimes would not be tolerated — and outside, indicating for the first time since the abuse crisis had swelled in Europe that he personally understood the depth of the problem. The issue has revealed an ancient institution wrestling with modernity and brought to light an internal culture clash between traditionalists who have valued protecting priests and bishops above all else, and others seeking more transparency.
Photo: Vincenzo Pint/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
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