A copy of Pope Benedict XVI's pastoral letter to Irish Catholics is displayed in St Peters Square, Vatican. Photograph: Franco Origlia/Getty Images

Pope Benedict XVI released today a Pastoral letter expressing shame and remorse of Catholic church and calling on priests to face justice. He also castigated Irish bishops for “grave errors of judgment” in their handling of the paedophilia scandal and ordered a Vatican investigation into the Irish church.

Despite the size of the letter, it only says that the abuses happened, the victims lives are shattered, but yet hypocritically argues that it was not the Church’s fault, but fault of independent deranged people.

Benedict made no mention of any Vatican responsibility, gave no specific punishments for bishops who have been blamed by victims nor Irish government inquiries for having concealed the abuse; and he he did not rebuke Irish Bishops specifically for having failed to report cases of abuse to police.

Yet, it dates back longer. Under John Paul II, local bishops’ power and authority had been limited; he often acted as though he were the bishop of each diocese while the actual bishops are little more than his assistants. By treating the bishops as “middle managers,” that’s exactly the sort of management style that John Paul encouraged — and that has now proved to have brought disastrous consequences.

This is about a situation of ‘endemic’ rape and abuse of Irish children in Catholic care.

Children were beaten for the last decades and thousands of children were systematically and sexually abused as reported in a study of the Irish Commission for the Investigation of Child Abuse (the Commission of Inquiry Into Child Abuse).

Pope Benedict XVI and his brother, George Ratzinger

In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel called today for more efforts and openness to shed more light on child abuse by Catholic priests in Germany. The cases plague most Catholic, including Elite schools, in the country.

Pope Benedict’s older brother has been linked to a sex abuse scandal rocking the Catholic Church in Germany. Allegations of abuse at a boarding school whose choir Georg Ratzinger ran for 30 years have surfaced. Benedict was the Bishop in charge in this same venue and occasion.

In Austria, where most if not all of the Catholic establishments have being reported for child sexual and corporal abuse, including paid cover-up cases, Bishops are themselves stating ‘do not deny the guilt of the Church‘; a political party asked for the Chemical Castration of the offenders (clerics, in this case), as it is the same that occurs with any or every criminal – there should be no tolerance; and the scandal, as I have been following it daily through this same media, is currently covering, in graphic details, over 70% of radio, television and newspaper space in the country.

Austrians are also blaming the Celibacy rules in the Roman Catholic Church for the happenings, what even tho is correct, do not cover the Corporal Punishment reported cases, which are just as numerous.

Benedict XVI replied to the Celibacy issue with a sounding “no”, as it would bring them closer to Christian Protestants, something he adamantly refuses to.

The abuse cases already show that with the church’s statements, the Christian religion have reached the modern age, and its differentiation for not being in the same relevant man made image of the Islamic religion, is in fact not credible.

Every officer in charge, politicians and representatives of public responsibility should have to be underwritten for what happens in his house. And if one’s own organization offenses weight as heavily as in the widening scandal around the abuse of children in church-run facilities, there can be no alternative but the resignation of Benedict XVI.

Benedict XVI’s Pastoral letter to the Catholics of Ireland can  be downloaded in PDF format from the Irish Catholic Bishops.