The Vatican released a statement today at the conclusion of a two-day meeting between Benedict, several of his highest curial officials and the bishops from Ireland. The meeting was called due to recent horrifying reports released by the Irish government regarding the physical, emotional and sexual abuse of thousands of children in Church-run institutions, schools and parishes throughout the country. They were similar to other disclosures from around the world - the bishops knew, covered-up, aided the criminals and persecuted the victims as well as those who tried to stop it. What was different is that Ireland is an overwhelmingly Catholic country. Because that religion permeates all aspects of the national culture, people felt especially betrayed by the institution which symbolized for most what it meant to be Irish. As a result, they have literally left the Church in droves, creating a crisis for the hierarchy unmatched in any other country.

Although Pope John Paul II briefly met with American cardinals in April 2002 to discuss damage control in the wake of the explosion of newspaper articles regarding clerical sexual abuse in the United States, neither he nor his successor have held another meeting at the Vatican on the issue until now. Knowing that for decades Cardinal Ratzinger had been head of the department which received reports of all cases involving sexual abuse and so, could not claim ignorance of the matter, Catholics throughout the world were expecting two results from this meeting: first and foremost, an apology and an offer of whatever resources it would take to help the victims and second, an acknowledgement that since only the pope can appoint bishops, the pope must take some responsibility for selecting so many men without even a shred of common decency or compassion.

What we got was much of the same boilerplate we have been getting for the past eight years. The first paragraph (of eight - a brevity almost unheard of in the Vatican) regrets the "damage" to the Church and the "sense of [not actual] pain and anger, betrayal, scandal and shame" of the victims was not mentioned until the third paragraph. No apology was made. In the fifth paragraph it was noted that the bishops should "identify concrete steps aimed at bringing healing to those who had been abused." What did set today's statement apart from those of the past was an admission of the "failure of Irish Church authorities."  But no failure or error of the pope was admitted, as if these "Church authorities" just materialized out of thin air. And while reports from at least 23 countries have dealt with clerical sexual abuse of children in recent decades - due in part to difficulty in accessing older records, the deaths of those involved and to limit investigations to manageable size - several books have been written showing the physical and sexual abuse of children in the Roman Catholic Church has occurred continuously since the fourth century. But not even an allusion was made to any sin or defect in the institution.

So whose fault is it?After charging the bishops with "restoring the Church's spiritual and moral credibility, [t]he Holy Father also pointed to the more general crisis of faith affecting the Church and he linked that to the lack of respect for the human person and how the weakening of faith has been a significant contributing factor in the phenomenon of the sexual abuse of minors."  I'm sure all Catholics, especially the Irish, will appreciate being told that no one really is responsible for the "phenomenon" of raping and sodomizing children, that these heinous and gutwrenching assaults were caused by some nebulous "lack of respect" and "weak faith."  

That explanation isn't good enough and this statement is unacceptable. I'm sure when Benedict finds his pews increasingly empty, he will have some equally banal excuse.  

You can read the entire statement at http://www.whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/

(Betty Clermont is author of The Neo-Catholics: Implementing Christian Nationalism in America.)