Pope begs forgiveness for sexual abuses, shifts blame to Devil, and announces no new measures

So says the New York Times today.

The Devil Made Me Do It. A great way to avoid personal responsibility. And asking forgiveness before announcing specific measures to stop it?

The pope said the Devil was behind the scandal, saying it had emerged now, in the middle of the Vatican’s Year of the Priest, because “the enemy,” or the Devil, wants to see “God driven out of the world.”

A somewhat different view from lay Catholics, the Times reports:

In a statement, the lay Catholic group BishopAccountability.org, which is based in the United States, called the pope’s remarks “a great disappointment and a squandered opportunity.”

It called on the pope to “endorse and facilitate certain external measures that would increase transparency and advance justice,” including posting all abuse cases handled by the Vatican on the Vatican Web site and ordering “his bishops to cooperate fully with secular investigations, not oppose them."

When the Catholic Church finally accepts that sex is normal and that abstaining from it does not make one holier or closer to God, perhaps it will be able to recruit priests with normal sexual desires.