When I was 11 years old, my father took me to a church meeting where he, a vestry member, made a motion to fire our minister over the theft of $500. My father agonized over doing that, but felt he no longer respected our minister due to that theft, and lack of remorse by our pastor. The minister was duly fired. Some 22 years later, that very same minister asked to say a few words at my mother’s funeral, and apologized for the theft, and for the harm it caused our church. He asked for forgiveness, which we all offered to him, as he neared his 100th birthday. I have never forgotten that very important lesson.

The Pope is a man of God but as such, he is fallible, as are we all. He would show true leadership of his flock by at least asking for forgiveness from his flock. Barring this, the appropriate thing to do would be to step down to end the harm his past actions, or lack thereof, are causing his flock.

Paul Berton Birkeland, Kirkland