Bill Press is a syndicated columnist, CNN political commentator and author of the newly-published book Spin This!

Bill Press: Catholic Church needs shakeup, starting at top

WASHINGTON (Tribune Media Services) -- If you're looking for a reason why the Catholic Church is doing such a lousy job cleaning up the mess caused by priest pedophiles, start at the top.

This is a serious problem demanding strong, aggressive leadership. Pope John Paul II, so far, has provided none. He is, in fact, so infirm that nobody believes he is running the church any longer, let alone capable of dealing with the worst scandal to hit the Catholic Church since Martin Luther caught it selling indulgences.

Finally goaded into action, the pope this week summoned America's eight cardinals to Rome on April 23-24 to discuss how to deal with an issue that threatens to bankrupt, if not empty, the nation's churches. But that call comes too little, too late. From his latest public statement, it's already clear the pope has no idea of the gravity of the situation in this country, or how to handle it.

Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, recently returned from a week of meetings with the pope and other top officials in the Vatican, on the problem of sexual crimes committed by priests.

As reported by Bishop Gregory, the pope expressed great compassion for and "fraternal solidarity" with American priests whose reputations had been tarnished by the scandal. And he stated his complete confidence in the efforts of American church leaders to solve their own problem.

How out of touch with reality can he be? It's not priests who need compassion and solidarity, but the thousands of victims and their families. And if John Paul II has any confidence in American church leaders, he's the only one. How, for example, can he continue to support Boston's Cardinal Bernard Law?

What happens to Cardinal Law is important, not just to the Archdiocese of Boston, but to the entire country -- because it speaks directly to the willingness of church officials to recognize and get rid of men who hid behind their Roman collars in order to prey on children. For years, Law simply looked the other way.

There was, first, the case of Father John Geoghegan, recently sent to prison, no thanks to Cardinal Law, for molesting hundreds of young boys. Instead of reporting him to law enforcement authorities, Law and his predecessor transferred Geoghegan from one parish to the next -- and his next set of victims.

But the story of Father Paul Shandley is even more shocking because his sexual depravity was public knowledge, and because he's still on the loose.

According to diocesan records released this week, church officials knew as early as 1967 that Father Shandley had molested at least one little boy, whose name, address and phone number were included in church files. He was suspected of abusing several others.

The file also contains a report on Shandley's attendance at a meeting of the North American Man Boy Love Association, at which he stated that "a boy was actually helped by a man/boy love relationship." He only suffered, said Shandley, when forced to report the incident and undergo therapy. At a second NAMBLA meeting, also documented in his official file, Shandley asserted that whenever adults have sex with children, it is the children who seduce the adults.

Armed with such damaging evidence, what did Cardinal Law do about Shandley? He didn't turn him over to the police. He didn't punish him. He rewarded him! Named him pastor of a suburban Boston parish in 1985. Five years later, amid more reports of child abuse, he granted Shandley sick leave, while the archdiocese continued to pay his salary, living expenses and medical bills. Shandley and another priest, also on paid leave from the Boston Archdiocese, used the money to buy a gay resort in Palm Springs.

Yet Law still continued to cover up for Shandley. He recommended him as "a priest in good standing" to a California parish and appointed him acting director of New York's Leo House, a guest house for graduate students.

The fact that Cardinal Law is still in power, after coddling known criminals, is a disgrace. That he refuses to resign is a sin.

There will be no end to the current scandal until guilty priests and those who sheltered them are both held responsible. If the pope really wants to fix the problems of the American Catholic Church, he should start by firing Cardinal Bernard Law.

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Bill Press is a CNN commentator and author of the newly published book "Spin This!" His e-mail address is: BillPress@aol.com