Abuse allegations and church doctrine

Holy Week services at the Vatican included some spirited and defensive rebuttals of accusations against Pope Benedict's handling of pedophile priests. Some critics have claimed that Benedict, when he was an archbishop and later as a member of the Vatican inner circle, addressed clergy sex abuse accusations as a damage-control issue rather than a pastoral matter of caring for the victims and potential victims of pedophiles. Some critics are even accusing the beloved Pope John Paul II of ignoring credible accusations of child sexual abuse by priests.

Church doctrine is a major impediment to the church's resolution of this problem, now that it has reached the papal palace itself. The pope is God's representative on Earth, the direct, chosen successor of St. Peter, and, as such, he is infallible, according to church doctrine. When the pope speaks for the church, he cannot be wrong. If the pope is infallible, therefore, he could not have mishandled the issue that is now roiling the church. This doctrine prevents any high church official from asking the Watergate question: "What did the pope know and when did he know it?" If Benedict or John Paul are directly implicated by documentary evidence of covering up pedophilia in the priesthood, the church will be faced with either ignoring the evidence or ignoring doctrine. The infallible cannot fail.