Misbehavior from larceny to sexual scandal to child abuse is not limited to the Roman Catholic Church. Wikipedia lists 27 Christian evangelist scandals that do not include Roman Catholic clergy. Among them are Aimee Semple McPherson, Jim and Tammy Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart, Ted Haggard, and Tony Alamo. The Baltimore Jewish Times reported on money laundering by Jewish religious organizations this past February 21.
The Associated Press Reported on March 15, 1995: “The Rev. Donn Moomaw, who was Ronald Reagan’s minister for decades, resigned as pastor of Bel Air Presbyterian Church because of “sexual contact” with five women, the church disclosed.” Initially the reverend stated that he was resigning for “personal reason.”
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI, participated in precisely the sort of secrecy and administrative negligence that has been at the root of the sexual child abuse scandal that has rocked the American Catholic archdiocese.
The pope in a recent letter to the Irish bishops fails to see his own culpability: “It cannot be denied that some of you and your predecessors failed, at times grievously, to apply the long-established norms of canon law to the crime of child abuse. . . . I recognize how difficult it was to grasp the extent and complexity of the problem, to obtain reliable information and to make the right decisions in the light of conflicting expert advice. Nevertheless, it must be admitted that grave errors of judgment were made and failures of leadership occurred. All this has seriously undermined your credibility and effectiveness.”
The pope should resign for “health reasons.”
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