If Pope Benedict is truly sincere in his desire to heal the pain of the perverted priests' victims, he will defrock Bernard Law for starters. Does anyone believe this will happen?
Also, keep in mind that many or most of these priest abuses took place in the '50s. The "breakdown" of society which we now refer to did not begin in that decade.
Regardless of what has occurred in the general population, I wish the Pope wouldn't compare that to the abuses of priests.
These men, according to the Church, received a calling to dedicate their lives to God and, thereby, they took on the responsibility of leading others, adults and children, to live good and holy lives.
According to the words of the Pope, we now can view priests as not much different than the average good person who gives his/her life to caring for children, teaching them right from wrong, and always being there for them.
The laity who take care of their parents, are there for their friends, support their families, help out in many other ways, do not have to put anyone in the Church hierarchy on a higher plateau than that of themselves.
The Cardinal didn’t bugger anyone, and his handling of the abuse cases received the right response: he was fired from his job ,or kicked upstairs if you like. What your want to do is to punish the Cardinal for poor judgement, not a crime under church law, nor really under civil law. Many a public school has sent many a school teacher on his merry way for committing actions like those ascribed to these priests. Usually it was because the parents did not want the matter to be brought to light. As in many a rape case, the victim would be injured by a prosecution by having to take the stand. Very often the school board was not made aware, and certainly the local prosecutor did not want to get involved. Out of sight, out of mind. What the Cardinal did wrong was to behave no better than a secular institution.