Save The Children

Kathryn Jean Lopez is horrified over the rape and molestation of children by priests.

There have been crimes. There are sins.

She has made a study of the world-wide scandal of priests raping and molesting children and has prepared an exhaustive rebuttal.

[M]uch of what is being reported on does not always live up to its billing.

She examines the suggestions being offered and thoroughly assess their likelihood for success.

[T]he solutions pundits present are not all that they think they are.

Lopez, an expert on sex, has made a examination of the effect of celibacy on men and has determined that the priests who rape and molest children do not have sexual problems, they have obedience problems.

For one thing, celibacy is not the problem. It’s easy to see why people who live in a culture that has made a religion of sex — believing it is the road to love and fulfillment rather than the expression of it — would insist that a man surrendering it, as well as his whole will, to Divine service, is simply impossible.

She has also developed a complete assessment of the Pope's possible role in the priest rape and molestation cover-up. The following is her entire rebuttal.

In truth, the problems that have led to all kinds of “filth” — to use the former Cardinal Ratzinger’s term of disgust for crimes and sins that he was made aware of while a cardinal at the Vatican and did not tolerate — and breakdown in so many American and other seminaries and dioceses stem from issues of integrity and fidelity, not the existence of celibacy.

[and]

[W]hile being the father of fraternal correction, crackdown, and cleanup, Pope Benedict XVI, in word and deed, is teaching and modeling what exactly being Catholic means to a few generations who haven’t been clear on it. He is an example of a leader who is living up to his office, while calling others to account.

The Pope, God's emissary on earth, the one chosen by the Church's cardinals to guide and protect the Church, is helpless in the face of priest rapists and molesters, however, says Lopez.

If there were easy, across-the-board solutions that would do away with sin, I’m sure he’d be all for it. The truth is that there aren’t. The answer to preventing moral breakdown — whether we’re talking about the Catholic Church or a marriage — is fidelity.

In her defense of the church Lopez does not mention rape or molestation or children, but no doubt that is a small oversight. Everyone knows that Lopez is all about protecting the lives of children.