Weeks before he was elected Pope in 2005, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger spoke in a Good Friday meditation of “filth in the Church”, a remark interpreted as a denunciation of those involved in clerical child sex abuse. Cardinal Ratzinger had more insight than most into the grave sins committed by priests against innocents: as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith he had read plenty of reports of sexual misconduct.

The shame of those crimes was not limited to the individual priests involved, however. All too often, in countries such as the United States, Ireland and the United Kingdom, church authorities, from parish to diocese and up the hierarchical chain, put the avoidance of scandal above the protection of the young and above justice. No wonder then that the Church remains tainted by that history. This week, at a meeting of the United Nations human rights council in Geneva, it was accused of ­covering up child abuse and being in breach of several articles under the Convention of the Rights of the Child.
In response, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican’s permanent observer to the UN, issued a statement saying that only 1.5 to 5 per cent of Catholic clergy were involved in child sex abuse. He also said that such abuse was far worse in other denominations and in Jewish communities. This is an argument akin to a teenager caught taking drugs pointing out to his parents that the kids over the road are drunk. As Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, head of the New York Board of Rabbis, remarked: “Comparative tragedy is a dangerous path on which to travel.”

That there is child sex abuse occurring in other Churches should be noted by the Catholic Church – not as a defence of itself but as a starting point for dialogue. Best practice for dealing with the problem should be shared as well as theories about the causes of abuse. Critics of the Catholic Church have often claimed that abuse is linked to celibacy. But if it is ...

News emerged as The Tablet went to press this week that the Pope is to visit Britain next year – the first papal visit since that of John Paul II in 1982. On that occasion the visit was a pastoral one, as it co-incided with the Falklands War, and so it was deemed politic not to favour England and Wales with an official visit at a time when the United Kingdom was in conflict with Catholic Argentina. But this time, ...

The summer’s parliamentary expenses scandal, coupled with the country’s overwhelming lack of confidence in the Labour Government under Gordon Brown, has now been joined by a third factor turning people away from politics and politicians – the inability to be honest about public spending. Major issues of social policy affecting the whole country are being swept under the carpet, while the leaders of ...

The conviction of three British Muslim men of a plot to blow up airliners over the Atlantic, and of a fourth for a related conspiracy, has told the world how close it came to reliving the horrific trauma of 9/11 when four American airliners were used as flying bombs. It is not clear how many aircraft the British conspirators hoped to bring down, but the death toll could have exceeded the 2,993 (including 19 terrorists) ...

Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver, Colorado, has castigated The Tablet for urging the Catholic hierarchy in America to put its weight behind President Barack Obama’s health-care reforms, accusing a Tablet editorial on 15 August of cynicism or ignorance. He says it overlooked two points. The first is the danger that government funds might be used to pay for abortion; the second is distrust of government attitudes ...