And he’s fighting mad, too.

The Vatican on Tuesday dismissed any notion that Pope Benedict XVI should take personal responsibility for the child-sexual-abuse scandal rocking the church, defending his management of such cases and vowing that the crisis would not interrupt what historians view as his conservative agenda for Catholics around the world.

So predictable. And so wrong—not just as a matter of morality, but as a matter of public relations. The more he fights, the longer the Church’s sex problem stays in the news, and the more it’s attached to him. Why not address it honestly? The truth will set the Church free.

It’s hard to believe that the Pope has a hotline to God when he acts like such a dolt.