Almost as soon as the white smoke began rising from the Sistine Chapel confirming his election, Pope Benedict XVI began seeing his pontificate hijacked by ongoing revelations of sex abuse by thousands of Roman Catholic priests. The scandal, which first erupted in the United States during his predecessor's pontificate, has become a global phenomenon, with fresh allegations of pedophilia and other priestly abuses -- most of which occurred decades ago -- in Ireland, Belgium, Germany, England and elsewhere, from the Philippines to Brazil. Supporters of Benedict say he has acted forthrightly to deal with the crisis; critics say that earlier, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Benedict did not react forcefully enough. Experts now ask what long-range impact -- if any -- the scandal will have on the global church and its faithful. The answer is murkier than it needs to be, say critics, because of the Vatican's ultra-secretiveness. More openness, they claim, might have stopped the crisis from spinning seemingly out of control.

Roland Flamini is a Washington-based correspondent who writes a foreign-affairs column for CQ Weekly. Fluent in six languages, he served as Time magazine's bureau chief in Rome, Bonn, Beirut, Jerusalem and the European Common Market and later served as international editor at United Press International.