* in Malta, Joseph Ratzinger (aka Pope Benedict XVI) promises action against pedophile sex abusers among the Church’s priests, but offers no details … will the Church encourage criminal prosecution, not only of the abusers, but also of the bishops who enable them?

Victor Simpson (AP) writes (4/18/10) …

• Pope Benedict XVI met Sunday with a group of clerical sex-abuse victims and promised them with tears in his eyes that the Catholic Church would seek justice for pedophile priests and implement “effective measures” to protect young people from abuse.
• Benedict expressed his “shame and sorrow” at the pain the men and their families suffered and prayed with them during the meeting at the Vatican’s embassy in Malta, the Vatican said.
• It was the first time Benedict had met with abuse victims since the worldwide clerical abuse scandal engulfed the Vatican earlier this year, and it marked his most personal and forceful statement on the spiraling abuse scandal since a letter to Irish faithful a month ago.
• “He prayed with them and assured them that the Church is doing, and will continue to do, all in its power to investigate allegations, to bring to justice those responsible for abuse and to implement effective measures designed to safeguard young people in the future,” the Vatican statement said.
• The Vatican offered no further details of what measures would be implemented.

Read the entire article at … http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100418/ap_on_re_eu/eu_malta_pope

LMW COMMENT …

The words of Joseph Ratzinger (aka Pope Benedict XVI) are a very belated but nevertheless good first step.

Now we will see what action follows.

• What exactly will the Church do to deal with new allegations of sexual abuse of children by priests?
• Will the Church aggressively pursue criminal prosecution of the abusers and any bishops and others who enable those abuses by failing to immediately report the allegations to criminal prosecutors?
• What about past allegations and past cover-ups?
• Will Ratzinger seek to expose and prosecute those, like himself, who have enabled this curse to endure by failing to report allegations and deal with abuser priests for many decades?

We’ll see. There must be no relaxation until the actions of the Church match Ratzinger’s words.