"Suggests" of course, clearly means "guilty beyond reasonable doubt." There is evidence that "suggests" Barack Obama was not born in the USA, so he should he resign too. The difference being, if the latter is true, it DOES invalidate his presidency, while if the Pope WERE guilty of far worse than has been "suggested" it would STILL not invalidate his papacy.

As for the article, the bishop whose requests were allegedly denied by Cardinal Ratzinger is supporting him. There is no suggestion in the article that anyone was molested in the period in which this case was under review. The willingness of the Church to settle with the victims is in no way evidence of guilt, since anyone with the slightest understanding of the tort system knows that it is often more costly to defend a false accusation than to settle, and perhaps the foremost charitable organization in the world (and one that is arguably most responsible for that concept as well as the criminalization of pedophilia in the first place - that was by no means a universal practice when the Church got started) did not want to out children on trial to keep its own reputation pristine.

Ah, yes. The usual tripe from lapsed Catholics attacking the Church to clean their own consciences. With everyone else, it is "love the sinner, hate the sin" but an organization that teaches individual responsibility for crimes is supposed to be acting out of collective guilt?

Defrocking does not usually (and did not in this case) stop a person from such activity. All it would have done would have been to cut the Church's ties with the man. Would the world have been a better place if he spent the 80s cornholing kids as a layman in his house in a gated community? Can you say that being under the eye AND the discipline of a bishop during the 80s (his decade of respite from his activity, according to the article) did NOT have an inhibiting effect on his behavior? As you point out, the civil authorities, who ARE actually responsible for preventing such things, failed too. Why is everyone singling out the head of a worldwide bureau rather than the California or US justice system? Incarceration is a FAR greater deterrant than defrocking. I don't know about you, but IMO, the "giving child molesters what they ask for" strategy has little indication of positive results. Maybe setting a child molester whom the legal system had failed to adequately restrain free from his duties and responsibilities to the Church as he wanted was not the best plan in the world either.

I would think THAT sort of assignment would fall under the responsibility of his bishop and pastors. The idea that they needed permission from Rome to keep him away from kids is kind of hard to swallow.

Why? It is none of your business if you are not a member. It is not as if the Church is the only part of society where this sort of thing take place - rather, it is the only institution that has made the tactical mistake of admitting errors in this area and one of the few with a process and intention to be rid of them. Far more children are molested by public school teachers in the US than by priests, and ministers, rabbis and imams have their own share of scandals buried in small insular commmunities, rather than reporting to a world-wide organization. Remove the beam from your own eye before you go digging at the splinter in the Church's.

In point of fact, that article rather suggests that Ratzinger may have prevented abuse. There was no suggestion that anyone tried to remove the priest in question before his conviction, or that he carried on his abuses while his case was under review, but he WAS convicted of his crimes as a layman! It is the Church who should be upset here that their ties were not cut sooner. And I love how when it comes to violent thugs who murder children in the California justice system, everyone is quick to call up terms and phrases like "rehabilitation" and "benefit of the doubt" and "innocent until proven guilty" but when it is a priest, the CHURCH is supposed to do what the courts cannot (despite the fact that their last effort at doing so resulted in the Black Legend and being tarred with vicious and untrue propaganda throughout the English-speaking world), and heaven help anyone who suggests helping the priest get better, or that he ever be eligible for "parole." Tookie Williams was a far worse predator who did far greater harm to the youth of California, but he had celebrities lining to praise him and beg for his forgiveness.

The willingness of hypocrites to scream the worst about the Church to cover their own shame at their personal failures to live up to her teachings never surprises me.