Not a Smoking Gun Mr. Anderson
A recent piece of correspondence is being whipped up as something so significant one of those plaintiff lawyers suing the church now opened a London office thinking this is his pot of gold at the end of that rainbow. http://www.aolnews.com/2011/01/19/vatican-says-leaked-sex-abuse-policy-letter-is-no-smoking-gun/
The Vatican denies it is that telling.
The obvious intent of writing a letter that says - you don't need to report every allegation of sexual abuse to the police or civil authorities is to preserve fairness and guard against unjustified assaults and attacks on some people's (priests) character- some of these allegations could be recreated memories by suggestion, some could be totally trumped up extortion, some could be wildly imaginary or motivated by vendetta or monetary gain- so why report something until you have credible evidence. That is how the letter possibly should be read. As the Pastor of about a billion folks there is nothing unusual in a Pope saying- have a little wisdom please- you don't need to fly off the handle and call the police everytime someone makes an allegation.
The church is full of crazy people- God loves crazy people too.
In the US legal system there is a process called a 'summary judgment' which means that there has to be sufficient evidence to even maintain a case for it to even get to trial.
What's wrong with asking for a little evidence first?
There could be a 'rush to judgment' in this climate of anti-catholicism.
Would we want a Pope that was not fair and thoughtful who would hang out to dry the people the community invested in training to become priests who serve them with love and kindness daily without something more than an accusation??
No, of course the letter makes sense.
So I hope Mr. Anderson didn't take out a long lease on his London digs.
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