While the latest outbreak of scandals surrounding sexual abuse in the Catholic Church system is only the most recent of a long line of such atrocities, stemming back decades. Specificities of the many incidents aside, the Catholic Church has demonstrated an attitude and behaviors of significant consequence in their response. Alleged abuse is handled internally; even priests who turn themselves in, admitting guilt, go to their superiors, not the police. Why is this? It's because these people believe their preferred sacred book is of higher authority than the 'the laws of man.' In their eyes, they are responsible to a 'higher power' than the authority of our civilian law and government. Such thinking is detrimental and a threat to society. Possible consequences for this mindset are far-reaching, but we can already point to two macabre results: conspiratorial sexual abuse & terrorism. 

Faith in itself is not necessarily responsible for this arrogance, nor even is organized religion. While I have my qualms with both, it's important to recognize that neither requires this superior mindset. But we can point to individual systems and persons as guilty of malfeasance, and the Catholic Church and Pope are front and center. 

The Pope's claimed infallibility and rule by divine right is equivalent to a monarch's "above the law" status. It is anti-democratic (not that the Catholic Church makes an efforts to be democratic) and immoral, in particular by claiming such status on the basis of his own belief. At least an old monarch was placed above his/her own laws within his/her own domain. But for the Pope or any part of the Church to claim any authority whatsoever over the laws of sovereign nations is not only unfounded, but unenforceable to the extent of any individual or group making claim to whatever divine authority they have based on whatever fantastic system they choose to believe. 

It is not to a bishop or archdiocese to judge and punish priests. That is the duty of a civilian court. Every alleged case of abuse by a priest in the US should be investigated by DoJ and handled accordingly. These men are NOT outside of the law, regardless of whatever claims to be responsible only to some higher being.

This inevitably relates to the Pope's supposed "diplomatic/legal immunity" within certain states. Geoffrey Robertson outlines the absurdity of this idea in The Guardian:

"The anomalous claim of the Vatican to be a state – and of the pope to be a head of state and hence immune from legal action – cannot stand up to scrutiny. . .

. . . In 2005 a test case in Texas failed because the Vatican sought and obtained the intercession of President Bush, who agreed to claim sovereign (ie head of state) immunity on the pope's behalf. Bush lawyer John B Bellinger III certified that Pope Benedict the XVI was immune from suit 'as the head of a foreign state'."

And Hitchen's on the origin of the Pope's supposed immunity: 

"The UN at its inception refused membership to the Vatican but has allowed it a unique "observer status", permitting it to become signatory to treaties such as the Law of the Sea and (ironically) the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and to speak and vote at UN conferences where it promotes its controversial dogmas on abortion, contraception and homosexuality."

I strongly agree with both Hitchens & Dawkins in their supporting Robertson's and Mark Stephens's efforts to have the Pope arrested for "crimes against humanity" during his visit to Britain. Rather than point you to the UK's Sunday Times's misleading article, I suggest Richard Dawkins's clarification of the matter here. 


Here's a very good NPR story (~9 min) on the handling of a US case. 

Here is a BBC article on campaign to arrest Pope Benedict XVI. 

Post Script: I'm hopping on the bandwagon

I've decided that I'm no longer beholden to the U.S.'s Muggle laws, for I am a wizard according to my belief in the 7 Holy Texts. I am only responsible to the UK MoM's American counterpart: The U.S. Department of Magic. 

Sustainable Value - WSOM, CWRU, NEO, and Beyond

*Originally written April 9, 2010*

At this afternoon's Public Affairs Discussion Group, organized by the Center for Policy Studies at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), Dr. Roger Saillant was to speak about Business and Sustainability. In the end, the discussion encompassed far more. centering around his vision for the Fowler Center for Sustainable Value, Weatherhead School of Management (WSOM), Case Western Reserve University, the Greater Cleveland Area, and beyond.

Dr. Saillant spoke hopefully about efforts to incorporate sustainability into all of its offered courses. The University itself is worker on a similar goal to coordinate curricular and research activities on sustainability. Meanwhile, collaboration on ideas abounds, from the city-wide Sustainable Cleveland 2019 vision, to  region-wide cooperation with Oberlin College, to larger efforts to exemplify a sustainability-centered system of values for the nation as a whole.

The talk was riddled with interesting information, views, and issues. Particularly striking was Dr. Saillant's metaphor for changing today's societal mentalities as a critical long-term goal. He described how centuries ago, when beginning work on a massive Cathedral, the lead mason knew he likely would not live to see the final building in all its glory. But he nevertheless dedicated himself to building the best quality foundation he could. Because without the proper foundation, the entire building could not survive, and no generation could enjoy it.

Short term goals of the Dr. Saillant and the Fowler Center include significantly raising Weatherhead's rank of #33 in the Aspen Institute's Global Top 100 business schools and boosting Case Western Reserve's grade of B- on the College Sustainability Report Card, which he believes can largely be accomplished by re-organizing the endowment information that CWRU already makes available (CWRU's Endowment Transparency grade was an F, two years running).

A good Q&A session followed, with recommendations to read Slow Death by Rubber Duck and to watch Janine Benyus's TED Talk on "Biomimcry in Action" (careful, TED Talks are addictive). The event ended with a poignant reminder of the stark truth: that the Earth's changing climate is already past tipping point. But Dr. Saillant's aim is to motivate through a positive focus, one of an achievable sustainable world. And he does a good job inspiring others to believe (and to act), too.