It’s just a Reuters headline, not a quote from Pope Benedict, but the Church is not usually in the business of ‘suggesting’ that people with responsibility do the right thing. Read the whole article. It’s clear why victim’s advocates are unhappy with the Pope’s directive. There’s plenty of room for delay and cover-up, the signature crimes of the Church in the past two decades.

Vatican Suggests Bishops Report Abuse to Police

VATICAN CITY – The Vatican told bishops around the world Monday that it is important to cooperate with police in reporting priests who rape and molest children and asked them to develop guidelines for preventing sex abuse by next May.

But the letter from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith made no provision to ensure the bishops actually follow the guidelines, and victims groups immediately denounced the recommendations as “dangerously flawed” because they stress the exclusive authority of bishops to determine the credibility of abuse allegations.

I have little sympathy for this vagueness, because I am mandated to report abuse. No ambiguity– it’s part of my responsibility to the people I take care of.

Contrast the Bishops, who will spend a year ‘developing guidelines’ to this un-named hotel staff supervisor…

“A 32-year-old chambermaid at a Sofitel on 44th Street said that at about 1 p.m., she entered Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s room to clean when he came out of the bathroom naked, pushed her onto the bed, and assaulted her,” Browne said. The maid told police that before she could escape, Strauss-Kahn forced her to perform oral sex, Browne said.

She immediately told her supervisor, but before investigators could get to Strauss-Kahn’s room, he had left the hotel, leaving his cellphone and other personal items, Browne said.

The maid was treated for minor injuries at a Manhattan hospital. A police source said she had picked Strauss-Kahn out of a lineup.

If he is found guilty, then he’s a common criminal. I’ve been a motel maid, it’s hard work at low pay. Note the time–it’s likely the maid thought that Strauss-Kahn had already checked out, maids usually get a list at the start of the shift. She might also have been at the end of her work day, tired, and scared to death when she was ambushed in what she thought was an empty room.

It’s clear that the hotel had instructed staff to report crimes, that the maid felt she could get help from her supervisor, and that the supervisor did the right thing and called the cops.

Some readers might think it’s a no-brainer and easy to report a crime. It’s not. It was probably not easy for those hotel workers. But that’s when you need to be strong.

THE ACCUSER: So I worked as a maid in several motels in the 70’s and 80’s, and I think about the victim and her co-workers. This article from the Daily Mail interviews a man who lives in an apartment building in the Bronx, and says the victim, his neighbor, is a quiet, shy woman who works hard to support her daughter. If Mr. Strauss-Kahn has to face his accuser in court, this could be one of the most dramatic trials of the century– a powerful, arrogant man against one of the invisible people who work unnoticed in a luxury hotel.

TOUGH JOB: AOL Jobs has an essay by a maid about her working day. No offense to the writer, but the job can get really boring as you clean rooms alone for several hours, and she’s been doing it for sixteen years.