Let women be leaders in Catholic Church

Child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church has been happening at least since the 11th century. Ten centuries later, church leaders are still struggling to protect tens of thousands of children's lives; worse, they cover up sex abuse scandals. Recently, Pope Francis defended his tendency to blame the devil for child rape and sex abuse in his organization: "We have to do battle with the devil."

I have to disagree with the pope. There is no "mystery of evil" here; rather, there is a definitive abuse of power, clearly manifested in criminal sexual assault of children as young as three years old.

As scholars of the Bible, Catholic officials and priests are not mystified by evil or God's will. As venerated high-ranking officials, they are supposed to know and model the highest spiritual and moral values. To directly quote from the Bible: "But the one who did not know his master's will and did things worthy of punishment will receive a light beating. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required, and from the one who has been entrusted with much, even more will be asked" (Luke 12:48).

The pope and the public need to ask even more from their Catholic leaders.

I, for one, would like to ask: does an all-male leadership make sense in this modern world? Statistics show that a majority of pedophiles are men rather than women; if more women serve as priests and occupy positions of power in the Church, could it be less likely that children are going to be sexually abused? Perhaps. One thing is certain: the more diversity exists in any group, the more innovative solutions there will be to address its problems. Research shows that. So I implore Pope Francis: let women be leaders and collaborate with you in leading the Catholic Church.

Bea Rodriguez-Fransen

Naperville