The Big Picture and the Closeup

How is the Pope like a Peruvian steamship? The State Department stopped both of them from getting sued. You’re right; it’s not funny at all.

Let us concede that the paper trail stops one or two levels shy of Ratzinger in many of these cases, though not of Rev. Kiesle. What is required is for the Church to release all documents. And even if Benedict has grown, letters like the one shielding Kiesle can only be expiated by Benedict leaving the hierarchy now.

It is grotesque for perpetrators to put themselves on the same moral plane as victims of any sort, let alone victims of one of the greatest wrongs ever committed.

Government employees who make policy are expected to know this going in, whether it’s written down or not. They are accountable for their views, and the currency in which they render account may well be their careers.