The impossibility of defending Benedict

Rod Dreher, while specifically "not trying to let the Vatican off the hook", remarks that:

OK, look. There are over 400,000 Catholic priests on the planet. Do you know how many priests are on the staff of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which has oversight in these matters? Something like 40.

If only there were some way for the Vatican to increase the number of priests serving on the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Unfortunately, it is impossible.

Serious question: how is the Vatican, with its extremely limited resources, supposed to handle this problem? Again, I'm not trying to excuse Vatican inaction, but I don't see how Rome is going to get a handle on this at the level of monitoring particular priests.

I always thought that the Vatican had vast wealth, not "limited resources", but I'll ignore that for now. Dreher is setting up a straw man argument: that people are outraged at the inability of the Vatican to "get a handle on this at the level of monitoring particular priests". What people are outraged about is that, upon hearing that one of its priests may have raped a child, the Vatican response was "the priest should simply be monitored". THAT is where the outrage lies. But to Dreher, the problem is that:

How Benedict fixes this, God only knows. He theoretically has the power to order wholesale reforms. In truth, it's far, far more complicated (what's he going to do if bishops refuse to obey him, send in the Swiss Guards?). The quandary he's in is that he's got responsibility for all of this stuff, without the practical means to police it effectively. It is an administrative nightmare.

It must suck being at the top, and yet not having any power. I bet he wishes he was still Cardinal Ratzinger, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. From Deborah Caldwell:

[Ratzinger has] been the driving force behind the Vatican's crackdowns on liberation theology, religious pluralism, challenges to traditional moral teachings on issues such as homosexuality, and dissent on women's ordination.

And how did he do that?

Ratzinger maintained strict discipline on church doctrine, excommunicating and silencing dissenters.

Too bad that he lost those disciplinary powers once he became Pope. It could have brought comfort to a whole lot of raped children.