You can see the reports now. As the leader of a multi-billion dollar industry, the Pope as the CEO takes all major decisions and also bears the overall responsibility for the organisation and its activities.
Faced with the incontrovertible evidence that there has been systematic breaking of the law and abuse of children across the organisation, that there has been a systematic cover up and protection of those who should have been brought to justice, the Pope, as the person with whom the buck stops, has decided to live up to his responsibilities as CEO and offered his resignation.
No doubt he would receive massive compensation for his resignation as is typical in multinational business enterprises where a CEO has brought the corporation to the point of (moral) collapse, and a place will doubtless be found for him to serve on various international or government bodies, perhaps specialising in ethics.
Those around him will acknowledge his bravery and honour in taking his responsibility seriously and doing, albeit belatedly, the decent thing.
But of course, that won't happen. Despite the abominable actions of a church administration bent on covering up crime and protecting its own, despite the enormous weight of evidence from thousands of people who were abused as children by representatives of the church, the Pope is wringing his hands and regretting all sorts of things. But what he won't do is accept any personal responsibility and take appropriate action.
Because although it is a religion business, indeed a massive multinational corporation with investment branches all over the world, in this case the CEO is declared to be infallible. And of course, if he's infallible, then he can't have made any mistakes and so cannot bear any blame. There must be many thousands of CEOs around the world envious of his position, powerful yet free from criticism, directing but without responsibility, issuing instructions yet answerable to no-one, apparently not even a god.
Being the infallible interpreter of a voice from an immaterial superbeing clearly has its advantages. It would be understandable if catholics took the opportunity to distance themselves from this odious hypocritical religious administration. After all, it's run as a business, selling a product whilst abusing the faith and confidence of millions, harbouring a distinctly criminal element, to which it has turned a pious blind eye for decades. Why would anyone have any confidence in them at all?
