Pope Benedict XVI has made the statement that the outrage and calls for action from outside the over the sexual abuse of children within the church is a for of “persecution of the Church.” He further stated that the cause of that widespread sexual abuse of children that has been documented within the Catholic Church is caused by sin. For those of you who are not paying a lot of attention, or who prefer an appeasement strategy when it comes to El Popo, or who just don’t know, let me spell that out for you: If the problem of regular sexual abuse of children by priests is caused by sin, then it can be fixed internally, by the Pope himself or his bishops.
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So, once again, as I have noted before<\/a>, the Pope is placing responsibility for these acts anywhere he can other than a) the offending criminals who happen to be priest and b) the other offending criminals who have been involved in the cover ups and deflections of justice, including numerous priests, bishops, and it would appear the Pope himself.<\/p>\n Here is what the pope said about the cause and context of these problems and the solution, as recored by reporters traveling with him and reported by the BBC<\/a>:<\/p>\n Today we see in a truly terrifying way that the greatest persecution of the Church does not come from outside enemies, but is born of sin within the Church. [The Church has] a very deep need [to acknowledge that it must do penance for its sins and] accept purification.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Am I reading this wrong? I don’t think so.<\/p>\n