Another Priest Abuse Scandal Linked to Pope

The Vatican priest abuse scandal just keeps getting bigger. Last week we learned that under the watch of Archbishop Ratzinger–now Pope Benedict XVI–a priest accused of molesting choir boys in Germany was allowed to continue working with children. Today the New York Times reports that the Pope ignored allegations of abuse by a Wisconsin priest:

Top Vatican officials — including the future Pope Benedict XVI — did not defrock a priest who molested as many as 200 deaf boys, even though several American bishops repeatedly warned them that failure to act on the matter could embarrass the church, according to church files newly unearthed as part of a lawsuit.

U.S. feminists are getting pretty fed up with the Conference of Catholic Bishops trying to claim the moral high ground on abortion and same-sex marriage–at the expense, of course, of women and gay people–while the Church’s own house desperately needs cleaning.

About

Jessica Stites is the former associate editor at Ms. magazine. Today she's the editorial director of In These Times, where she runs the Leonard C. Goodman Institute for Investigative Reporting and edits stories on labor, neoliberalism, Wall Street, immigration, mass incarceration and racial justice, among other topics.