I don't know if you've been following the latest in a never-ending, never-addressed series of sex scandals involving Catholic priests and underage boys but it's pretty ugly, especially because the response from The Vatican seems to be along the lines of, "Keep moving…nothing to see here." Until the next one and the one after that and the one after that. Maureen Dowd and Andrew Sullivan (Catholics, both) have written pieces of eloquent outrage demanding action and decrying the Pope's apparent attitude, which is that the Church can handle this matter internally…and would probably handle it by doing not the right thing but the least embarrassing.
Not being of that faith, I won't pretend I fully understand its internal policies and if there's any remote justification for dealing with the crimes in this manner. But I sure can't imagine what they might be. Pope Benedict XVI may well have to resign over this…and if he doesn't, he's going to have to do something big to tell the world that the Church is changing; that it cares about its followers more than about its own officials. I don't have an idea what that might be — but Sarah Silverman does…
