Quote of the Day: If Monsignor Lynn, Why Not Pope Benedict?

In a post today, Andrew Sullivan sums up the criminal nature of the Catholic Church hierarchy.  He posits why, if Monsignor Lynn is guilty of a felony, should not Pope Benedict XVI - who is documented to have egaged in similar conduct that led to the rape of children - be likewise charged and convicted.  Of course, in addition to Benedict XVI, the same situation applies to countless bishops and cardinals as well.  Here are highlights from Andrew's post:

Finally, finally ... some modicum of accountability for the cover-up of child rape in the Roman Catholic church. A senior cleric in Philadelphia, Monsignor William J Lynn, acquitted of conspiracy and a second count of endangerment, was nonetheless found guilty by a jury of covering up child-rape in such a manner that the rapist was able to strike again.

I might add that this precise chain of events - in which a child-rapist priest was reported as a criminal to the church authorities, then sent to therapy, then reassigned only to rape again - is exactly what Joseph Ratzinger did in Munich in the 1980s. How does an institution allow a lower priest to go to jail for such an act, while allowing the chief pontiff to carry on as if nothing had happened, as if children had not been raped because of his direct complicity in protecting the rapist?