ARREST THE POPE? WHY NOT?

Arrest the Pope? Why not?

Last night I watched a panel of journalists on BBC’s Dateline London discuss the Pope’s direct role in the cover up and protection of paedophiles in the Catholic order.  I realized with a bit of a shock, that the discussion was not about whether the Pope was responsible or not; with all kinds of evidence pouring out from all corners of the world, and a BBC documentary, the Pope’s explicit role in all this was irrefutable.  What the BBC panelists were discussing – was what could now be done with the Pope.

Suddenly one of the panelists said something like, “Well you cannot possibly arrest the Pope!”

And I immediately thought, why not?

If this was any other large, multinational organization with evidence of harboring an international ring of paedophiles, would not the topmost authorities be immediately liable to investigation and police action? If the CEO of that organization had this kind of direct evidential pile-up against him of actually leading the cover-up would he not be put under arrest?

So what excuses the Pope is what I would like to know?

People come up with the weirdest retorts.  Some say, the Catholic church has also done much good for the poor around the world.

Well, so what if it has?

I don’t see what the logical connection here is!  Are these people trying to say, well since the church has done so much good they are allowed this ‘folly,’ if at all we could call it that?

And if these are the worms coming out of the cans in wealthy, western nations where the laws that deal with paedophilia are infinitely better defined and implemented than in the third world nations, can you imagine what might be going on in Asia, Africa and South America – where the Catholic Church has the largest recruits? 

Recently reports have been emerging from N-E India, where missionaries are most active in India, of massive child sexual trafficking. In fact one of the priests wanted for trial in the U.S. has been living and working in India for the last few years.

It makes this kind of a pathetic, and deferential treatment of the Pope that much more dangerous.  The EU has a high-handed attitude about secularism and human rights. But if it does not move forcefully now to investigate the Vatican and the Pope’s role in this ugly pedophilic saga, and act according to the existent EU laws, then it will be complicit in perpetuating the grossest international violation of children and human rights.