Tonight I watched a little of Chris Matthews on Hardball talking about the pope and the sexual abuse scandal. The pope sent a letter to Catholics in Ireland about the scandal and also he is calling for an investigation into unspecified dioceses. He has accepted the resignation of two Irish bishops. Critics of the pope have cited the case of a Wisconsin priest who was not defrocked despite direct appeals to the future pope when he headed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The Vatican has cited the priests advanced age and poor health plus the many decades which have passed. Defenders of the pope say he should be credited with starting an investigation into a high-profile case involving the Legionaries of Christ, after such cases passed under his control in 2001. The Vatican's spokesman, Father Lombardi, says his role is not personal, it's institutional. Since Pope John Paul the Second was such a charismatic and likeable pope the expectation for a pope is very high. In other news some journalists had their email accounts hacked into and disabled by the Chinese government and there was also some news about Hamid Karzai's brother, Ahmed Wahli Karzai in Kandahar who is battling the Taliban insurgercy.