Pope Benedict XVI concluded his trip to these shores by meeting with five victims of priestly sexual abuse and addressing the United Nations

National Review, May 19, 2008

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Pope Benedict XVI concluded his trip to these shores by meeting with five victims of priestly sexual abuse and addressing the United Nations. In the first meeting, the pope faced up to the grave sins committed both by the abusive priests and by the bishops who protected them. Refreshingly, he used the language of repentance rather than of therapy or legalism. The meeting was a necessary step toward the renewal of the church. The U.N. needs renewal as well, and the pope performed a useful service in reminding it that its legitimate role is to serve the rights and dignity of persons--and not, for instance, to serve its tyrannical member states. We would have preferred a bit more emphasis on subsidiarity: the notion that authority should be exercised by the smallest unit sufficient to the task. A careless listener, or one who wanted to hear a rationale for U.N. empire-building, might have come away with the impression that the pope was calling for a vastly enlarged international organization to vindicate human rights. We suspect the pope would be pleased if the U.N. performed its current tasks without the many types of corruption to which it has been prone.