Here are excerpts ftom one of the best articles I've seen on Benedict XVI's visit to the US.
In a time of healing, let us remember all victims
By Joe Fitzgerald Monday, April 21, 2008 -
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1088501
Three years ago, while multitudes chanted “We have a new pope!” upon seeing white smoke at St. Peter’s Basilica, critics of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger were already predicting gloom and doom....
From the moment he became Pope Benedict XVI, he was on a collision course with local malcontents whose resistance to the teachings of the church added immeasurable ugliness to the scandal that left it reeling.
In their exploitation, they shamelessly created a witch hunt in which basic American tenets, such as the presumption of innocence, were tossed to the wind in reckless pursuit of ideological agendas....
By the time Archbishop Law left in the throes of the scandal, however, that collar had become a scarlet A, thanks to a lynch-mob mentality implying every priest was guilty by association, a slur made unconscionable by the fact it was intentional.
Yes, it was heartwarming to read of the pope’s unprecedented private meeting with local victims of priestly abuse; even his most wild-eyed critics were momentarily mollified.
But, lest it be overlooked, he also had the grace to allude to forgotten victims, too, urging love for those faithful priests who, while remaining true to their vows and callings, were made to pay a price for crimes they did not commit.
No list of victims is complete if it doesn’t include the ones who unfairly bore the brunt of suspicion and loathing, much of it triggered by dissidents hoping to hobble a vulnerable Catholic Church by any means necessary.