We know Pope Benedict is stepping down and will soon be replaced by a new Pope. The chosen few who are selecting the next pope from amongst their number have quite the task ahead of them.

Dealing with the sex abuse scandals in the US and Europe are among them. Pinning the blame on gay priests, however, isn’t going to solve the problem. One of the Cardinals who is among the leading candidates, Ghanaian Cardinal Peter Turkson (who would be the first black Pope if selected), thinks the problem is due to having too many gay priests in the US and Europe - and that the problem isn’t as bad in Africa because society doesn’t look favorably on homosexuality.

“African traditional systems kind of protect or have protected its population against this tendency,” he said. “Because in several communities, in several cultures in Africa homosexuality or for that matter any affair between two sexes of the same kind are not countenanced in our society.”

Never mind that there is no evidence that homosexuals are abusers in any greater numbers than heterosexual men, the Church’s problems aren’t just the widespread abuses, but the coverup.

It’s the coverup of the abuse by shifting priests from one location to another, thwarting law enforcement actions, stonewalling, etc., that is the core problem with the Church, not that there are homosexual priests (or too many of them as Turkson believes).

To me, the comments indicate a level of denial that is crippling to the Church’s long term survival in Europe and North America, and it’s one that will also undermine the health of the church elsewhere.