The Forgotten

Much praise to Christopher Hitchens for reminding everyone that Pope John Paul II reigned over a Church that protected the most vile of criminals - sex offenders of children - and believed in its impugnity before the law of man, allowing Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston a safehaven from American prosecution in the Vatican. Here's the disturbing details.

Cardinal Law isn't going to face a court, now. He has fled the jurisdiction and lives in Rome, where a sinecure at the Vatican has been found for him. (Actually not that much of a sinecure: As archpriest of the Rome Basilica of St. Mary Major, he also sits on two boards supervising priestly discipline—yes!—and the appointment of diocesan bishops.) Even before this, he visited Rome on at least one occasion to discuss whether or not the church should obey American law. And it has been conclusively established that the Vatican itself—including his holiness—was a part of the coverup and obstruction of justice that allowed the child-rape scandal to continue for so long.

No doubt Pope John Paul II lived a principled life and did much good, but his role in the child-rape racket should be a pox on his legacy for as long as memory survives. When it came to protecting the weakest among us, he aided and abetted the predators.