Anyone following the footsteps of John Paul II was likely to suffer by comparison, but Pope Benedict seems to be going out of his way to justify poor evaluation. The first Sunday after his "mistakes were made" "rebuke" of Irish bishops, he offers a homily from St. Peters admonishing the faithful to forgive and not to judge--generally pretty good advice--but highly suspect in the context of an exploding scandal in which old Ratz has not in any way acknowledge the MAJOR role that he played.

In 2001, while Ratzinger was serving in the Vatican under JPII, he wrote a letter (Crimen Sollicitationis) admonishing all bishops to report the findings of their local sex scandal investigations directly to his office and to otherwise keep the results of their investigations secret, under pain of excommunication. Now as Pope Benedict, he claims that he never intended that bishops should avoid reporting crime to the police, but this claim rings awfully hollow given that he himself did not make any such report in any one case, despite the fact that he was, without question the one person within the Vatican who was fully aware of the breadth of the problem.

I have been trying to figure out a way in which Ratzinger's despicable actions might NOT be seen as a gross obstruction of justice on a staggering scale, but I am unable to come up with one. Congratulations, Benedict: you are shaping up to be the worst pope since your namesake Benedict IX.

Oh, oh wait I know this one! This is a clear cut case of "man's law" vs "Gods law", after all the office of Benedict XIV is infalliable, right? This also has delightful correlation to the views of "worldly law" vs "the chosen" held by those in power, in a book I'm currently reading, "The Family", in which the reprehensible actions of "the elect" are forgivien, because they're special.

Remind me again, why does the Vatican still exist?

Let me take a guess at this one.

Because they have the money and have learned well the ways of controlling the masses.

Because it's the true church.

OMG, I better run right out and confess all my sins to my local Priest so that I might be saved.

Thank you metis for bringing me to the light.

Everyone thinks their church, temple, assembly etc. is better than all the others. I wouldn't be too quick to bash Catholics for it until I was absolutely positive that I didn't display the same attitude. Besides, the issue on the table is obstruction of justice, not feeling a bit pleased with oneself.

Excuse us for having a little fun with answering WMDKitty.

The issue of obstruction of justice” would fall under whose justice you are speaking of.
The Vatican is recognized as separate from other countries and holds it own form of justice. They, as many nations, follow the laws of other nations and so called international law as they choose.
I’m sure the Pope and many at the Vatican feel they will answer for their lives to God and not to man and may see “justice” differently than you do.
If one feels they answer only to God then they don’t see a need to answer to man.

The “Worst Pope”, maybe to one who isn’t Roman Catholic and/or believes in certain moral codes of conduct held sacred to mankind, but to others He has solidified what it means to being Roman Catholic and the one true religion, above all others and answerable only to God.

BTW, I attend mass with my wife almost every weekend, and I really do enjoy the church and the people, including the priests and nuns. However, many Catholics are very upset about all the pedophile and other abuse cases that were not acknowledged until recently.

I'm sure that's very... comforting... to the victims.
/sarcasm

Which explains a lot.

Meanwhile, the victims of the abuse get to watch as their abusers are excused and shuffled to new parishes with a fresh crop of victims. So. Farking. Wrong. On so many levels.