Well now we are just arguing semantics. I'd say that anyone who protects rapists (and moves them so they can rape again) instead of reporting them is directly responsible for the rape. Likewise, people who tell others to commit crimes are directly responsible for the crimes.
Indirect responsibility as I see it is where the action had nothing to do with the crime or event. In other words, there isn't a distinct line you can draw to connect the two actions. To give an example, say the V.A.T tax is raised by 20% or something, and so all store prices rocket. Now some poor guy cannot buy his food, and so starves. The decision to make the raise in V.A.T is indirectly responsible, since that decision wasn't made with prior knowledge that this guy wouldn't be able to afford food.
With the example you give, it is irrelevant if the community did the hiding. They hold some of the blame because of that (and I never said the Pope is 100% responsible for everything). The fact still remains that the Pope protected these criminals, moved them about so they were free to abuse children again, and did not persecute or press charges on any of them. He is directly responsible for their crimes; he had prior knowledge of their crimes, he could have stopped them...he did not.
Indirect responsibility as I see it is where the action had nothing to do with the crime or event. In other words, there isn't a distinct line you can draw to connect the two actions. To give an example, say the V.A.T tax is raised by 20% or something, and so all store prices rocket. Now some poor guy cannot buy his food, and so starves. The decision to make the raise in V.A.T is indirectly responsible, since that decision wasn't made with prior knowledge that this guy wouldn't be able to afford food.
With the example you give, it is irrelevant if the community did the hiding. They hold some of the blame because of that (and I never said the Pope is 100% responsible for everything). The fact still remains that the Pope protected these criminals, moved them about so they were free to abuse children again, and did not persecute or press charges on any of them. He is directly responsible for their crimes; he had prior knowledge of their crimes, he could have stopped them...he did not.
