Who is the real victim of all of that sexual abuse inflicted by Catholic Church clergy upon German children? The Church claims that the Pope is the victim. Andrew Sullivan disagrees:

[I]t is the reputation of the church and the Pope they care about first, not the welfare of children. In today’s developments, the entire question of whether celibacy might have something to do with the stunted sexual and emotional development of priests (you think?) – let alone whether the repression and oppression of homosexuality contributes to psychological damage – has been ruled out of bounds of legitimate discussion by the Vatican.

According to Sullivan, the Church strategy is to “blame others before taking responsibility,” a strategy that it used so incredibly unsuccessfully in the United States.