"Persecution" Does Not Include Taking A Beating When You Deserve It: A Word to the Pope

When Pope Bendict XVI (hereinafter simply "the pope") arrived in Portugal, he said "The greatest persecution of the church doesn't come from enemies on the outside but is born from the sins within the church." I agree with the part where he says they brought it on themselves.

I do not agree it is persecution. Calls for the Roman Catholic Church to be accountable for molesting children is not persecution. Calls for transparency and documentation of what you knew, when you knew, and what you did about it are not persecution.

Child abuse scandals are showing up all over the globe, as priests have molested those most vulnerable ones in their care. If another organization, any other organization in the world, showed this patter of child sexual abuse and cover up, there would be world wide calls for accountability, prosecution and punishment. I do not see any reason the RCC should be immune to that.

1 Peter 2:20 says "But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it?"

Every priest that abused a child should be prosecuted. Every church official that helped him do it by covering it up, transferring him to another parish with no warning, bribing or coercing the victims to stay silent, quashing investigations etc., should be prosecuted as parties to the crime, for they aided and abetted the criminal.

That is not persecution. Let's not call it that. If you want to make a statement of contrition just say, we really sinned and we deserve what we get. Bring it on and we'll take it.

Oh, and let's quit saying we have a store of good works we can use to sell indulgences. I think the thousands of sex abuse cases depleted that bank.