Sullivan on the Pope

Sullivan's statements on Hardball last night echoed my own trouble with Pope John Paul II. He did many great things, but he still failed the greatest moral test of his reign by failing to take priests and bishops to account over the sexual abuse. Here's what Sullivan wrote on his blog about his words.

Last night on Hardball, I said what I think needs to be said. Under John Paul II (and his predecessors), the Roman Catholic church presided over the rape and molestation of thousands of children and teenagers. Under John Paul II, the church at first did all it could to protect its own and to impugn and threaten the victims of this abuse. Rome never acknowledged, let alone take responsibility for, the scale of the moral betrayal. I was staggered to see Cardinal Bernard Law holding press conferences in Rome this week, and appearing on television next to the man who announced the Pope's death. But that was the central reaction of the late Pope to this scandal: he sided with the perpetrators, because they were integral to his maintenance of power. When you hear about this Pope's compassion, his concern for the victims of society, his love of children, it's important to recall that when it came to walking the walk in his own life and with his own responsibility, he walked away. He all but ignored his church's violation of the most basic morality - that you don't use the prestige of the church to rape innocent children. Here was a man who lectured American married couples that they could not take the pill, who told committed gay couples that they were part of an "ideology of evil," but acquiesced and covered up the rape of minors. When truth met power, John Paul II chose truth. When truth met his power, John Paul II defended his own prerogatives at the expense of the innocent. Many have forgotten. That's not an option for the victims of this clerical criminality.

I couldn't agree more. This Pope, for all the good that he did, must be remembered for his awful failure in the American Church. He betrayed American Catholics by refusing to step up and take action against those responsible. I also agree with Andrew that it was in especially bad taste that Cardinal Law has been anywhere near the cameras this week. While we have a responsibility to remember the many good things this Pope did, we have an equal responsiblity to remember the awful things as well.