Has Pope Benedict XVI Washed his Hands of the McCann Family?

Most people have probably heard about the McCann family's search for their missing daughter — and the suspicion that the parents may have had something to do with the little girl's disappearance in Portugal. It's not surprising that suspicion might be turned on them, given the total lack of leads and evidence for any other explanation — even if they didn't have anything to do with it.

One curious development in this story, though, is their relationship with Pope Benedict XVI. The McCanns launched a massive media campaign to find their daughter and even visited Pope Benedict, who blessed a photograph of Madeleine. Now that suspicion has turned towards the parents, though, it appears that all references to the meeting and blessing have mysteriously disappeared from the Vatican's web site.

In their dark hours, it was faith that kept them going. They had nowhere else to go.

They took their torment to the very seat of their faith - to the Vatican, where the Pope held their hands and told them he would pray for them. They seemed to gain great strength from that.

But now, in their hour of need, like Pontius Pilate, he has washed his hands of them. A whiff of guilt, and the Catholic hierarchy distance themselves. And this from an organisation built on guilt and hypocrisy.

This, from an organisation that for generations swept sexual abuse under the carpet, and gave shelter to paedophile priests who ruined hundreds of lives, from Glasgow to Boston to Donegal.

Source: Sunday Mirror (via New Humanist)

Maybe this should be a lesson that if the only thing keeping you going is religious faith, then you should work hard to find something new to keep you going because faith in religion and religious leaders will never live up to the hope invested in them. A more realistic level of hope based on what real human beings are capable of might not seem quite as appealing initially, but you also won't suffer from as much disappointment as the McCanns may be experiencing now.

Their lives are ruined, no matter what the outcome. You would have thought the one lifeline they could have depended on to the bitter end would be the Catholic Church.

I can't imagine anyone who knows anything about the Catholic Church sincerely believing that it would be the "one lifeline" they can depend on to the bitter end. As Paul Sims notes at the New Humanist, "God's representative on Earth will always stand by his flock when the greatest tragedy befalls them. Unless, of course, suspicion should fall on them, in which case it becomes necessary to preempt a PR disaster." Even if the worst were true and the parents are responsible for Madeleine McCann's death, how would blessing a picture of the girls be seen in a poor light, though?

 

Update: It's possible that the meeting was never listed on the Vatican's web site to begin with. I have no way of telling and, as noted above, there seems to be little reason to have done so - even if we assume the worst about the McCanns. Columnist Anna Smith doesn't provide a link to where the original was and I don't know where she originally obtained her information, but I'm doubtful that she would just make it up.