The Old Hypocrite

I have been following closely the pedophile scandal evolving in the Catholic Church. I am happy that they are finally forced to admit their sick mistakes and even more glad I am about the example of Belgian earthly powers taking over an abuse investigation. Church clearly seems to have conflict of interest when investigating it's own priests' abuses of children. Those priests should be investigated and punished according to the earthly practises and laws. The so-called punishments the Church has meted out are ridiculous when compared to the gravity of the crimes. Or do you think it is enough of a punishment to move an abusing priest to office duty and not even take away his priesthood after he has molested dozens of children? No jail time?

I believe one problem in the Catholic Church contributing to these problems is celibacy. It is quite unnatural for a human being and may contribute to these sick occurrences. At the same time I am pondering about how widespread these problems really are? For instance, how widespread sexual abuse of children is in the churches that don't preach celibacy? Is there less sexual abuse? And what about the islamic world? Does it happen there as well?

During these latest waves of this scandal the Catholic Church has tried to whitewash the Old Hypocrite, the Pope, as an ardent and fierce advocate against child abuses and a strict punisher of abusers. I didn't much buy into that earlier and now, according to a New York Times article, some newly unearthed documents paint a completely different picture. Here are a few brief excerpts from that article:

"But church documents and interviews with canon lawyers and bishops cast that 2001 decision and the future pope’s track record in a new and less flattering light.

The Vatican took action only after bishops from English-speaking nations became so concerned about resistance from top church officials that the Vatican convened a secret meeting to hear their complaints — an extraordinary example of prelates from across the globe collectively pressing their superiors for reform, and one that had not previously been revealed.
...

The office led by Cardinal Ratzinger, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, had actually been given authority over sexual abuse cases nearly 80 years earlier, in 1922, documents show and canon lawyers confirm. But for the two decades he was in charge of that office, the future pope never asserted that authority, failing to act even as the cases undermined the church’s credibility in the United States, Australia, Ireland and elsewhere.
...

But the future pope, it is now clear, was also part of a culture of nonresponsibility, denial, legalistic foot-dragging and outright obstruction. More than any top Vatican official other than John Paul, it was Cardinal Ratzinger who might have taken decisive action in the 1990s to prevent the scandal from metastasizing in country after country, growing to such proportions that it now threatens to consume his own papacy. "

Perhaps it would now be time for the Old Hypocrite to step down? The Onion previously published a funny article on the subject heavily criticizing the actions of the Catholic Church and the Pope. You can read it here: Pope Vows To Get Church Pedophilia Down To Acceptable Levels