They just don’t get it. They really think their jobs as priests make them immune from the law. On Friday, we posted the report that Belgian police conducted a series of raids on Catholic institutions to gather evidence in the growing child rape scandal in the country. That’s often what police do when there’s evidence of crime and a cover up.
Well, the Pope is in a snit over the fact that law enforcement officials are actually investigating the crimes. The Church covered up those sex crimes for decades in countries around the world. What’s astounding is that Benedict really seems to think that the Church’s law is on par with are country’s laws — even when criminal laws are broken. But, it’s 2010, not the 16th Century:
The pope has called the raids carried out by Belgian police investigating priestly sex abuse “deplorable” and asserted the autonomy of the Catholic Church to investigate abuse alongside civil law enforcement authorities.Pope Benedict XVI issued a message Sunday to the head of the Belgian bishops’ conference, Monsignor Andre-Joseph Leonard. In it, he expressed solidarity with all Belgian bishops for the “surprising and deplorable way” in which Thursday’s raids were carried out.
What’s always been surprising and extremely deplorable is how the Catholic Church has handled the child rape scandal. This would have ended a long time ago if police in other countries treated the child raping priests like the criminals that they are.
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