Accepting Responsibility for Change

Pope Benedict said mass before 46,000 Roman Catholic faithful in a Washington D.C. stadium today, which makes it a mass mass. This is the pontiff's first visit to the United States and may well be his last given his advanced age.

Benedict has addressed what must be the rawest wound for American Catholics, the sexual abuse scandal which has harmed so many and cost the church both credibility and billions of dollars. When he first arrived in the United States he spoke about being "deeply ashamed" of what happened in that miserable era of abuse by clergy, then denial. Today he addressed the subject again:

No words of mine could describe the pain and harm inflicted by such abuse, Yesterday, I spoke with the bishops about this. Today, I encourage each of you to do what you can to foster healing and reconciliation, and to assist those who have been hurt.

We should have no doubt about the pope's sincerity in these remarks and it is important that he has been so open and direct. I have to wonder what has changed in the structure of the church to ensure that this couldn't happen again.

Of course I am in a denomination which can be maddeningly democratic, to the point that not much gets done because of our earnest anti-authoritarian approach. But surely the hierarchical world of the Roman Catholic church, as well as its discomfort with the realities of human sexuality for its leaders, contributed to the creation of a system where abuse took place. Staring into the rear-view mirror isn't nearly as helpful as looking to the horizon to find a new way forward.