As Pope Benedict XVI steps down, the moral authority and future
of the Roman Catholic Church depends on the next pope forcefully
dealing with child sex abuse in its ranks. Benedict had the
power to effect fundamental, institutional change from the top
that would have protected children of future generations.
Benedict failed to change the Vatican's traditional methods of
handling child sex abuse by priests and so abuse of children
continued, with thousands of more cases. Before his installation
as pope, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was the keeper of the
traditional papal secrecy around sexual abuse as the leader of
the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He issued
Vatican orders directing cardinals, archbishops and bishops to
keep credibly accused priests in ministry, to move them to a
different parish or to keep them in the priesthood because they
were too young, too infirm or their removal would cause too much
scandal for the church. As pope, he condemned the abuse more
strongly than his predecessors, b