Pope Rebukes Irish Bishops – Makes no Mention in Weekly Address

Today at the Vatican City in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI recommend his fellow Catholics to renounce placing judgment on sinners – all sinners – this only one day after he himself reprimanded the Irish Catholic Bishops for the half-century old child abuse sex scandal that tore through the Irish Catholic Church. The sexual abuse claims were lobbied against several various ranking clergy and at this tim e it is unclear who knew what at the time of the alleged incidents. The Pope’s letter also left out any type of punishment for those who were accused and convicted of these unspeakable crimes.

In his weekly address from his studio window, the pontiff made no mention of his formal letter he sent earlier this week that basically was a scolding of the Irish Catholic Bishops. His weekly address to faithful Catholics was a reading from the Gospel about Jesus’ welcoming those lacking sin to cast the first stone.

The head of the German Bishops Conference also took a stand in acknowledging that the Roman Catholic Church continually covered up allegations of sexual misconduct and abuse cases for many years. Freiburg’s Archbishop Robert Zollitsch stated that most of the cases happened outside of the church, there were many that happened within the sacred institution and this frightened and shamed him deeply.

There have been many other cities, countries and communities that have been ‘rocked’ by sexual abuse scandals including Regensburg, Germany where the boy’s choir – lead by the Pope’s brother – has long been exploited across Europe. In addition to Ireland and the Pope’s home of Germany, there is Switzerland, Netherlands, Italy and Austria who have reported sexual abuse upon children from clergymen.

Archbishop Zollitsch went on to comment that each and every incident darkens the face of the Catholic Church and will take some time to repair their image; however the allegations were limited to a select few clergymen and people should still have faith in their Catholic leaders. He went on to apologize personally for any cover-up of sexual abuse that took place 20 years ago while he was ‘on duty’ the head of the human resources department at Black Forrest Community.

The Pope said that Jesus taught us not to condemn or judge ones neighbors, that we need to be uncompromising towards sin – beginning with our own – and kind to the people who make the mistakes.