SHOULD POPE BENDICT ABDICATE?

Each day brings new allegations of sexual abuse of children within the Catholic church and it seems, all roads lead to Pope Benedict (then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger) for his part in the cover up.

The actions of the priest in Wisconsin, Rev Lawrence Murphy who was involved in sexually abusing nearly two hundred boys at a school for the Deaf were outrageous and criminal. Even worse is the fact that a Bishop brought the abuse to the attention Cardinal Ratzinger (Vatican official in charge of disciplining priests at the time), but it appeared the Cardinal looked the other way. The Bishop also requested the Vatican that Rev. Murphy be defrocked, but that too went unheeded. An investigation started years later was also hushed up.

It now appears that nearly sixty boys were subjected to similar abuse in a school for the deaf in Italy and that too was covered up. The legals minds are far better at figuring out culpability, but to a layman like me, having knowledge of a crime and actively covering it up, may itself be a crime.

There is an active debate taking place in the U.K. that Pope Benedict should be arrested upon arrival on his forthcoming visit. Not that, that will happen, but a petition signed by 10,000 people and still gathering momentum is being readied to be handed to the British PM to cancel the invitation to Benedict.

Pope John Paul II worked so hard to build bridges across the world and to other faiths, as a result he was loved equally by Catholics and people of other faiths. Pope Benedict has wasted no time is destroying all that and then some. The best course for Benedict is to abdicate and let someone else take over, who can continue the good work started by John Paul II.