Agree with Franscisco.  The time for the cover-up of the cover-up should have arrived at least 10 years ago and acknowledgement of one’s own sin/crime and cover-up should be made. 
Teachers (including moral leaders) will be judged more strickly (James 3:1).
If the Bible was followed (1 Cor 5 & 6) and I believe Canon Law, the blame game wouldn’t be played and the abuse wouldn’t have happened for 100 years.
Only when the secular media brought this horrible grave sin into the light, did the hierarchy do something (ie. reacted in 2002 with screening people, etc.) while the rest of the world was hidden until now.  God will judge us for every creature as Hebrews 4:13 states.
To resist the civil authorities is to resist God (see Ro 13:1-7).  I don’t recall Jesus needing a lawyer.

“These out and out attacks on both the church and the Pope are morally wrong.”

1) What is wrong is child molestation by anyone.

2) What is wrong is a policy of hiding it and threatening anyone that discloses this.

3) What is wrong is that the man who now claims to be the vicar of christ on earth could not even hold on to his moral convictions for the sake of protecting innocent children.

4) what is wrong is that he believed in protecting a human institution rather than the higher ideals it was meant to stand for.

5) I am not an outsider and I do feel pain and disapointment. What is the point of a church deprived of its raison d’etre, which is to protect, on many different levels, the poor. Instead of wasting your time on fruitless tasks like saving human instituions, cultivate the ideals that it has abbandoned. Ask (god, existence, etc.) to lead you where you need to go, and dont have preconceived notions about where it can take you. gl and good discussion.

Here is a link to your free copy of a non-fiction book available on the internet.
Please share it with all your friends.

Three used/new paperback copies of this book are available priced at $200
(used), $995 (used) and $900 (new). I highly recommend reading this free online
version to everyone who wants to understand just what the pope and his friends
are covering up. It is not JUST the rape of children, it is even worse than that.

Please, read the book,

Lucifer’s Lodge: Satanic Ritual Abuse in the Catholic Church
http://www.lulu.com/product/ebook/lucifers-lodge-satanic-ritual-abuse-in-
the-catholic-church/343299

Here is a site with some book reviews of the same book,

http://www.amazon.com/Lucifers-Lodge-Satanic-Ritual-Catholic/product-
reviews/0900588063/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

These are not “sins”, but crimes, and the pope and cardinals should be tried in a court of law, along with all the rest of the bunch.

In one sense, yeah. It was about time, but for a
Catholic, this should be, at best, a wishy washy
declaration. Instead of referring to “the church” as
the origin of “sins” that clearly refer to the sexual
abuse scandal, he should have been clear: “The
hierarchy of the church” is where this sin comes from.
The majority of “the church” were, actually, potential
victims of abuse. It is like a shepherd blaming the
sheep for its misconduct.
In sum, all Ratzinger said was common sense and wishy
washy, at best.