Good point. At the same time, one should not lump every Catholic priest (or every Catholic, for that matter) with those who committed abuse. They are still a tiny percentage of all priests - not that that makes it any better, but some posts read just as if every Catholic priest is a child molester by default... Just like not every Muslim is an Islamist...
Not sure which poster you are referring to and I might have missed it but for me, my issue is with the protocol that the Vatican uses to handle pedophilia cases. If you are a Catholic priest who knows of this procedure and decides to either ignore(stay silent) or participate in the cover up, you are just as guilty as the rapist (maybe even more so). It's a systemic problem.
I think everyone can agree that there are some major problems with leaders and institutions within all of the major religions. Just because we aren't calling them out 24/7 doesn't mean that people don't recognize that. As far as why the Catholic church gets more attention on this board than say what is happening in Madrasahs in Pakistan probably has more to do with that there are more Catholic churches and seminaries in America than there are Madrasahs. On the main topic it is an interesting historical situation but I think he is stepping down most likely because of health and not because of something else. My own view of the Catholic church is that it is an institution that could do much more good if it wasn't so concerned about protecting itself and defending its dogma. Pope Benedict as both Pope and Cardinal has been one of the major figures behind this.
