The Pope, the Church, and skepticism

Introduction This is a bit of a long post. As such, I've broken it up into sections, to help me corral my thoughts, and make it more likely people will actually read what I've written before leaving comments. Yes, that's a hint. I've spent quite some time wrestling with these issues the past two days, and I'm interested in rebuttals as well as supporting arguments. I urge people to comment, but please read what I've written first, and please keep it civil. So. By now you've probably heard that the Pope is in trouble. A letter written and signed by him seems to indicate that he was complicit in, at the very least, holding up discussion on what to do with an Oakland priest who was a pedophile. That's pretty awful, even more so when considering that it took him four years to get around to even writing this letter ...