The sins of the fathers?

As a Catholic, my feelings towards the Pope are not black and white. While I respect him as a spiritual leader, I have deep concerns regarding his handling of child abuse in the church. For many Catholics, the Papal visit was coloured more by a sense of relief than euphoria. We had expected mass protests and a poor turnout but it was actually a relative success. Police in Edinburgh did not report any large demonstrations and there were no arrests. A student organisation calling itself Protest the Pope Edinburgh only attracted a crowd of around 150 people.

At the heart of the animosity towards the Pope is the Church’s appalling track record on child abuse. Monsignor Donal Lucey, a parish priest told me of the Church’s failings: "Central to most of the media attention has been the church's failure in the area of child abuse. But that has now been acknowledged, late admittedly, but there has been heartfelt acknowledgement. The church has apologised and has put a process in place to ensure that it does not happen again." The Church is finally facing up to its responsibilities. During his visit the Pope met with five victims and has condemned the abuse saying it "seriously undermines the moral credibility of the Church".

The media too frequently deals in stereotypes. Whilst it is right that we hear about the child abuse scandal, there is virtually no coverage of the good work done by the Catholic Church and its adherents. It would appear that the BBC’s foreign correspondent, David Willey, agrees with me. He said the Papal visit caused him to"sit up and think about how stereotyped the view of the Vatican from afar can become". Monsignor Lucey believes "there is a tendency to tar the whole organisation with the same brush", when in reality "overall the church is a force for good in spite of all its failings and mistakes." It should not be overlooked that the Catholic Church is heavily involved in dealing with issues such as poverty, education, health and climate change. In November 2006 the Pope bought the first Immunisation Bond, a UK led initiative. To date the bond has raised over $1.6 billion to spend on health and immunisation programmes in 70 of the world’s poorest countries.

Father Tim Swinglehurst, Dean of Wakefield and Pontefract, told me the chief benefit of the Papal Visit was that "we were able to hear the voice of the Holy Father unmediated by a largely indifferent or even antagonistic other. We were able to hear where he places the emphasis rather than where others think it is". The British people got to see the real Pope, not a caricature created by the media. Many realised that, as well as being the Pontiff, he is a profoundly insightful and compassionate human being.

Monsignor Lucey accepts that the Catholic Church like all big organisations "is prone to corruption and imperfections. It is after all, run by human beings. There is an historic vendetta against the Roman Catholic Church. Some of that is historical but some we created ourselves. In terms of the Pope we have personalised Christianity into one person, hero-worshipping one man. It is healthy to question that". It is right that the Catholic Church is held to account but the media also has a responsibility to highlight the good that it does.