Dear Pope Benedict:
I wish you well, and I urge you to make your retirement count for something.
Why not announce you are stepping down as a healing gesture for the river of victims abused by pedophile priests? The Catholic Church – and as its leader, you – have demonstrated strategic, calculated indifference to decades of child rape and molestation. Both as Pontiff and an influential cardinal, you oversaw the transfer of priests to new parishes, where they preyed on fresh victims. Respectfully, you have done too little, too late. Please make your final announcement a truly healing one.
I ask this of you as a journalist who has covered the aftermath of the abuse, as a former Child Protection Worker who has worked with sexual abuse victims, and as a Catholic. I have written several times to the Vatican to request this.
In more than fifteen years of journalism, this is the first time I have publicly expressed a personal opinion on an issue of current affairs.
Sincerely,
Alicia Young
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