Pope Benedict's complaint is off-base

It was disappointing to hear Pope Benedict XVI lash out at Belgian police Sunday after they raided church offices in a search for hidden evidence of child sexual abuse.

The pontiff called the action “surprising and deplorable” and stressed the church’s “autonomy” to conduct its own investigations.

That claim of autonomy is especially troubling.

The fact that the Roman Catholic Church has failed to adequately investigate these cases and protect children from repeat offenders is now beyond dispute.

The horrifying pattern first revealed in Boston has now played itself out over and over, across the globe.

Given that, how can civil authorities be expected to respect the church’s autonomy?

We are not talking about spiritual or religious matters.

We are talking about violent crime against children.

Did the Belgian police go too far?

That’s possible.

They drilled into the tomb of a Belgian cardinal on a suspicion church records were hidden there.

They took files from the office of a child psychiatrist who was working with the church and had spoken with abuse victims on the condition of anonymity.

To judge the police action, though, we would need to know what they knew: Was the information leading them down these paths solid enough to justify the obvious affront to the church and its followers?

Or were the police being reckless at a time when the public’s anger at the church is at a peak?

No doubt we will learn more about that as the case unfolds.

In Belgium, the investigation is driven in part by revelations of the Rev. Rik Deville, a retired priest who told reporters he had informed church authorities more than 15 years ago about sexual abuse allegations against a Belgian bishop, but that no action was taken.

That bishop later resigned after admitting guilt.

Deville formed a group to investigate abuse within the Belgian church in 1992 and now claims to have 300 files on such cases.

He complains that an investigative commission formed by the church includes no lay people and no connection to civil authorities.

“It’s not up to the church to decide who violated the law and who should be punished,” he said in the wake of the raids.

“The bishops have a long history ... of silence and omissions. They protect the guilty, and not the victims.”

We don’t prejudge the investigation in Belgium.

The church deserves the same rights as any other institution when it’s accused of wrongdoing.

But the police have a duty to conduct reasonable searches for evidence of violent crime, no matter who objects.

SIC: NJCom