Pope Benedict XVI arrives in Washington today for a five-day visit to the United States, his first since he was elected Pope in 2005. President Bush and the First Lady are scheduled to greet the Pope at Andrew Air Force base this afternoon. Benedict is expected to address the issue of the priest abuse scandal when he speaks at St Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, but the Pope is not scheduled to meet with any of the victims of the abuse scandal. Mark Serrano of the group Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests criticized the Pope for failing to hold priests accountable for the sex abuse scandal.

Mark Serrano: “So, I mean, there is no safety for children in the Catholic church until the Pope holds bishops accountable. And the Pope not only will not hold them accountable today, the Pope, when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, had the chance to do it for two decades and didn’t. He contributed to the cover-up. The Pope is part of the problem.”

Meanwhile, more than 1,200 priests, nuns and lay members of the Catholic Church have sent the Pope a letter urging him not to visit President Bush at the White House as a sign of protest over the Iraq war. The letter reads in part, “There are many, both within the Church and outside of it, who long for your voice to speak for those innocent dead and — face to face with those whose policies denied all respect for their lives — demand that the killing stop.” Signatories include Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, Father Daniel Berrigan and Kathy Kelly.