Religion & Law

Given the understandable attention paid to the health care debate, we have not had any conversations (of the MoJ sort, at least) about what appears to be another wave of scandal in the Church's seemingly never-ending struggle with the fallout from the sexual abuse of children by priests and some bishops' apparent faciltitation of that abuse.  I found Pope Benedict's letter to the Church in Ireland to be a powerful reaffirmation of hope in Christ in the midst of heart-breaking human failings.  E.g.:

We are all scandalized by the sins and failures of some of the Church's members, particularly those who were chosen especially to guide and serve young people. But it is in the Church that you will find Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday, today and for ever (cf. Heb 13:8). He loves you and he has offered himself on the cross for you. Seek a personal relationship with him within the communion of his Church, for he will never betray your trust! He alone can satisfy your deepest longings and give your lives their fullest meaning by directing them to the service of others. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus and his goodness, and shelter the flame of faith in your heart.

And I understand (I think) the urge to focus the letter specifically on the Church in Ireland, since attention to "the local" matters greatly in Church teaching, both practically and aspirationally.  At the same time, I wonder if "the local" matters as much in this context, or to put it differently, I wonder if the Church needs to spend more time acknowledging and articulating the reality that this is not just a local problem, and that many of the same institutional tendencies that exacerbated the problem were the same in Ireland, the United States, Germany, and elsewhere.  Pope Benedict writes that "the problem of child abuse is peculiar neither to Ireland nor to the Church," but I wonder whether it would be helpful to speak more forcefully and more deliberately about child abuse as a problem within the global Church, rather than focusing case by case by case.  The Church's witness could benefit, I think, by more and deeper conversations about how an unhealthy emphasis by some (many?) Church leaders on secrecy, power, and a desire to maintain a public perception of clerical infallibility may have contributed to these problems.  Should we expect, or hope for, a letter on this subject addressed to all men and women of good will?