Excerpts from recent editorials in newspapers around the world:

April 6

The Jerusalem Post on the Catholic church sex scandal:

It took three days for Pope Benedict XVI’s personal preacher to realize his folly. On Good Friday, Father Raniero Cantalamessa said he was thinking about the Jews in this season of Pessah and Easter, because “they know from experience what it means to be victims of collective violence and also because of this they are quick to recognize the recurring symptoms.”

Callously, astoundingly, the veteran preacher, who has held his position since Pope John Paul II’s era, was not sympathizing with the real victims of the sex scandal rocking the Church. Not the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of children who have allegedly been molested by a sexually rapacious clergy over the decades. These were not the “victims of collective violence” Cantalamessa had in mind. Nor was his talk of “recurring symptoms” an allusion to the sex scandals that have surfaced recurrently in the Catholic Church. No, Cantalamessa was reserving his compassion for his fellow clergymen and his boss, who are being rightly censured for failing to stop the abuse and punish the sex offenders.

By Easter Sunday, Cantalamessa had repented.

“If against my every will and intention I hurt the sensibility of Jews and the victims of pedophilia, then I am sincerely sorry and I apologize,” the preacher told Corriere della Sera. …

Since becoming the 265th pope in April 2005, Benedict has inadvertently hurt Jews while trying to reach out to more conservative _ and some downright anti-Semitic _ elements in the Church. …

The pope must confront the depravities of his Church, wherever they appear, whether they be child molestation or rabid anti-Semitism. A continued failure to do so undermines his moral legitimacy and the respect of the Catholic faithful worldwide.

On the Net:

http://www.jpost.com

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April 7

China Daily, Beijing, on China-India relations:

To mark the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and India, top leaders of the two countries recently displayed strong political will to shelve differences and push bilateral ties to new heights. The ongoing visit by India’s Foreign Minister Somanahalli Mallaiah Krishna to Beijing is important for officials from both sides to carry out dialogue, build trust and establish cooperation.

China regards its relationship with India as one of its most important bilateral ties. The growth in their relationship in the past 60 years have made it possible for the two most populous countries to forge ahead with a long-term strategic partnership.

The two developing but emerging economies have been regarded as bright spots bringing hope of a full global economic recovery. …

By cooperating on regional and international affairs, the two countries will better safeguard each of their interests and those of the developing world at large.

The call for China and India to play a bigger role in the world has been growing. The call will be better answered if the two neighbors leave behind their past friction and look to the future. The two countries will be better positioned on global affairs if they could stand united.

On the Net:

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn

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April 7

The Star, Toronto, on U.S. nuclear policy:

By breaking with George W. Bush and downgrading the role the vast U.S. nuclear arsenal plays in the nation’s defense, U.S. President Barack Obama has surrendered nothing of America’s superpower status. His policy, unveiled at the Pentagon, is far more likely to strengthen U.S. security by reinforcing global efforts to combat nuclear proliferation and terrorism.

Those who fretted that Obama’s Nuclear Posture Review would leave the U.S. weaker than before ought to be reassured. It flatly reaffirms that nuclear forces will “continue to play an essential role” in deterring foes for a long time to come.

However, the NPR does nudge the U.S. a welcome few steps closer to the long-term vision Obama outlined in Prague last year of “a world without nuclear weapons.” It is a decisive and healthy break with the Bush era’s excessive reliance on the bomb as an instrument of foreign policy in the anxious years after the 9/11 attacks. …

In the Obama administration’s view, as codified in the NPR, Russia and China are no longer the enemy. America’s “top priority” is now to prevent al-Qaida or other terror groups from obtaining nuclear materials and to stop rogue states such as Iran and North Korea from building bombs and the means to deliver them. … “

On the Net:

http://www.thestar.com

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April 7

The Times, London, on U.S.-Afghanistan relations:

President Hamid Karzai’s astonishingly crude attacks on the U.S., after President Barack Obama’s first visit to Kabul, make patent the breakdown in relations between the two men. In a deliberately mendacious misreading of U.S. policy and strategy in Afghanistan, Karzai accused the West of perpetrating a “vast fraud” by trying to deny him victory in last year’s presidential election. He said that Afghans would trust their leader only if he showed he was not a puppet. And he gave a warning that if “foreign pressure” continued, he might even join the Taliban. …

It is clear that the prickly and mercurial Afghan president was humiliated by Obama’s six-hour nighttime visit and furious not only at being ordered to do more to confront the corruption in his government but at the subsequent U.S. disclosure of Obama’s frosty meeting. Karzai knows that Afghans have an atavistic mistrust of foreigners and an instinctive resentment of foreign forces, however committed they are to ending the misery, poverty and violence that Afghans have endured for the past 30 years …

Washington has made its frustration clear. The U.S. wants changes in place by September, when Afghans vote for a new parliament. It now has a shrewd grasp of Afghanistan’s tribal politics. Karzai may soon find that, caught between the Taliban and NATO, he is eminently dispensable.

On the Net:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk

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April 2

Star-News, Wilmington, N.C., on offshore oil and gas exploration:

As the Obama administration opens parts of the East Coast to energy exploration, let’s hope the president keeps those words in mind.

President Barack Obama has generally been opposed to offshore drilling, and the move is seen as a concession to Republicans as the president tries to craft a comprehensive energy bill that focuses on renewable energy.

Even those who support offshore drilling will find little in this bill to get excited about. The areas being opened for drilling _ including waters off North Carolina _ are not especially promising. For example, the tracts opened off Virginia are estimated to hold 130 million barrels of oil. That’s how much the U.S. imports from all foreign suppliers in two weeks. …

In North Carolina, the most likely sites for exploration are off the Outer Banks region, which is almost completely reliant on tourism and is home to an especially fragile ecosystem and a large commercial and recreational fishing industry …

Even if offshore wells were up and running, there has been little interest in building petrochemical processing facilities in North Carolina. So don’t count on an economic boon for North Carolina coastal counties. Meanwhile, the damage caused by a spill could be devastating to local economies … “

On the Net:

http://www.starnewsonline.com

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April 5

Chicago Tribune on new airline passenger screening policy:

The attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas Day was a catastrophe that was only narrowly averted. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian, allegedly boarded the Detroit-bound plane from Amsterdam with a bomb hidden in his pants. But when he reportedly tried to set it off, it failed to detonate.

In the scary aftermath, the Department of Homeland Security imposed broad new security rules requiring extra screening of incoming travelers from 14 countries, most of them largely Muslim, including Pakistan, Nigeria, Libya and Saudi Arabia. This was a frantic attempt to head off another possible attack.

Three months later, the administration has replaced the emergency plan with a more targeted approach. Recently, DHS announced that it will implement new measures on all international flights coming to the United States.

Instead of scrutinizing everyone from certain countries, security personnel will focus on travelers who match intelligence information about potential threats. Even if authorities lack the name of an alleged plotter, they hope to be able to catch him through information such as physical features, age or past travels. By including all countries, DHS intends to prevent extremist groups from circumventing detection by avoiding those 14 nations. …

Relying more on intelligence is a sound idea. But it requires sound use of information as well as the good investigative work needed to supply it. In the Christmas Day episode, it was not the policy that fell short so much as the people charged with carrying it out.

This looks like a better system. To improve our safety, though, it will need better execution.

On the Net:

http://www.chicagotribune.com

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April 7

The Providence (R.I.) Journal on government response to record-setting floods:

No one knows yet with any precision the full scale of property damage from the floods in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and eastern Connecticut. It’s probably in the hundreds of millions of dollars, and, we suppose, could even top $1 billion.

But far more important, of course, is the question of saving lives. And on that, we can be grateful that calm, well-informed and prompt leadership by the three states’ governors _ Donald Carcieri, Deval Patrick and Jodi Rell _ and valiant and fast work by law enforcement, fire, rescue and other personnel, in the public and private sectors, including the National Weather Service and private forecasters, and the news media, kept the threat of loss of life to a minimum.

Indeed, while reports are still coming in, as of this writing there were no deaths directly attributed to the storm in the flood’s epicenter _ Rhode Island. The accuracy and timeliness of warnings (aided by the electronic communications revolution of the past few years) were at the core of this achievement.

It could have been much, much worse, as awful as it was. It would be good to remember that as we continue to try to clean up the mess.