(CNN) -- A raid at the headquarters of the Catholic Church in Belgium by police investigating child abuse was "deplorable," Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday.
The pope expressed his "closeness and solidarity in this moment of sadness, in which, with certain surprising and deplorable methods, the searches were carried out" in a letter to the head of the Belgian Bishops Conference, Andre Joseph Leonard.
Police were searching for documents related to allegations of child abuse, a spokesman for the Brussels prosecutor said Thursday...
(Full story at above link.)
So apparently the Pope, who has and whose institution has been crawling with and then protecting the identities of pedos and child rapists, now has his panties in a twist over the fact that the church is not above the law nor immune to justice. The Belgian cops raided that church HQ like any common entity that was subject to a raid. And of course they had no right to search and raid a precious Roman Christist institution, considering that:
The article wrote:The Catholic Church faces allegations of child abuse by clergy across at least half a dozen countries, including the pope's native Germany, as well as Belgium, Ireland, Austria, the Netherlands and the United States.
He both downplays and disavows child abuse conducted by members of his institution, and the Vatican cites "the need to repair and confront such acts in conformity with the law and teachings of the Gospel.", in other words hiding it, dousing the offenders in holy water, re-unleashing them upon the people, and then forgetting about it. Remember the insanely numerous child abuse cases in Ireland where the names of the offenders were withheld? Or the guy on a hunger strike until that one priest is brought to justice? Or the aforementioned clergyman having his fence lined with the shoes of his victims? It needs to stop, and this "deplorable" raid is a huge step forward.
