I'd say your own reference to "tabloids" is a tad hyperbolic, Joe. Most sections of the mainstream press have given some coverage to the notorious Vatican "ratline" and, of course, books have been written about it too. Much of the hard evidence has come to light only in the last few years, through the forced disclosure of CIA papers (yes, they were implicated too) in the course of class actions brought in the US by the JWC and other groups.

The "participation by Catholics in the Holocaust" can easily be explained away as unsactioned behaviour by "bad apples." Harder to explain, whether by this pope or anyone else, would be the silence and indifference of Pious XII (Pacelli) during those horrific times. I'd say that anyone reading such of the relevant diplomatic correspondence as has become public would be bound to conclude that Pacelli knew at least about the purge of eastern orthodox Christians in Croatia/Bosnia, and about the Catholic government in Slovakia paying the Nazis to take away their Jews. For my part I'd be fairly sure he knew about the death camps in Poland too.

If it seems impossible to comprehend that any Christian institution would behave with such disregard for human life, it must be remembered that the Vatican was driven by a fear and loathing of anything even vaguely associated with communism/socialism, to an extent that bordered on paranoia.

Apologies do count for something - witness Blair's apology today to the Guildford Four and the Maguire family. One might expect it to come as second nature to a church that sets such store by confession. But so far no pope has gone nearly far enough, and I cannot see that it should require that much of an "effort."