Of all the vexing questions surrounding the widespread and on-going clergy sexual abuse crisis in the Roman Catholic Church, perhaps the ones involving the Pope are among those most begging for an answer. For such a centralized, authoritarian organization headed by one single man, the Pope, the key Watergate-type question of “what did he know and when did he know it?” is crucial to any understanding of the full dimensions of the crisis.

The Roman Catholic Church has a long tradition of policing its own, however poorly it may have done the job. The hierarchy fought hard for the privilege as soon as Christianity was first legalized by the Roman Empire, and has guarded it jealously ever since. During the Middle Ages, in most countries, clerics were to be tried in ecclesiastical courts, and if found guilty, sent to ecclesiastical prisons run by the Inquisition.

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