But I’m finding myself more distracted this Holy Week than in years past — and it’s not just because of the basketball game. For the past few weeks, my church — the Catholic Church — has been going through a crucible of criticism. More information is coming to light about the terrible acts of sexual abuse committed by the Catholic clergy, and this time, people are calling for the pope’s head.

A New York Times story that ran last week bears a lot of responsibility for the recent uproar. It reports that Pope Benedict XVI, while still a cardinal, actively impeded the criminal investigation and removal of a Milwaukee priest, the Rev. Lawrence Murphy, after he molested children. The article implies that the pope, through either concealment, permission or negligence, is responsible for grave injustices by preventing a criminal investigation — and that he should be investigated himself.

But there is not one shred of evidence out there to convict the pope of any crimes. Benedict wasn’t even notified of the crimes until 20 years after they occurred. And the archbishop of Milwaukee at the time was well within his rights to strip Murphy of his faculties without the pope’s “permission.” Any claims that Benedict enabled, permitted or turned a blind eye to sex abuse in the church are unequivocally false based on all available evidence.

But naturally, the chance to report a crime by the pope just was too tantalizing an issue for the mainstream media to pass up, and, as what usually happens when media organizations try to report a story without all the facts, mistakes were made.

In a laughably inaccurate piece in Slate magazine, writer Christopher Hitchens called for the pope’s resignation and criminal prosecution, calling him (in one of his classier moves) a “grisly little man.” MSNBC allowed the abhorrent headline “Pope Describes Touching Boys: I Went Too Far” to go through before later spiking it and apologizing. And Maureen Dowd, that paragon of wisdom and prudence, is calling for the pope to step down — so he can be replaced by a nun.

I have no problem with people criticizing my faith or my church. It’s not always fun, but I find it often makes me stronger in my faith. However, all I ask is that people — the media, pundits and online commentators included — do so with a factual foundation. There are many evil things members of the Catholic Church have done throughout the span of two millennia, but in this case, the pope is not at fault.

This is not to say, however, that the claims against the pope are not serious. Sexual abuse of minors is one of the most abhorrent and horrendous crimes imaginable. In the case of the Catholic Church, these crimes are compounded by the fact that they were committed by supposedly “trustworthy” men that represented Jesus Christ. It’s a terrible shame that more wasn’t done to prevent and prosecute the clergymen and their actions. People in and out of the church have a right to be furious with the actions of certain priests and bishops and have a right to demand transparency and swift action on all similar cases — from their pastors, bishops and the pope himself.

But to call for the Benedict’s resignation for crimes that he had nothing to do with — many of which were committed decades ago — isn’t going to do anyone any good. The last pope to resign was Gregory XII, about 600 years ago, so no one should hold their breath.

Today is Holy Thursday, the day the Catholic Church celebrates the institution of the priesthood. I’ll be the first to admit that my church has been host to bad priests, bad bishops and bad popes. But this pope is not one of them. Today, I intend to celebrate the clergy that lived up to their calling of doing good and spreading the Gospel — I can attest that those priests far outnumber the “bad apples.”

As a Catholic, I associate myself with some of the worst sinners this world has ever seen. But I can also count myself in the same company as some of mankind’s greatest heroes and heroines. My church has its share of bad apples, but if I get to be counted among the likes of Mother Teresa, Pope John Paul II and Jesus Christ himself, I intend to stay in the club.

Dan Faas is the State News opinion editor. Reach him at faasdani@msu.edu.