BY SHAY CULLEN
THE VATICAN and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger who had branded homosexuality “an intrinsic moral evil” were now being criticized for ignoring the child victims of clerical sexual abuse. A shocked and outraged Catholic Church demanded answers as to why priests could commit heinous crimes against children and not be held to account. Why could bishops cover up the crimes and enjoy impunity from the Vatican office that was supposed to hold them to account and failed to turn them over to the civil authorities to face justice?
Cardinal Ratzinger was shocked and conflicted as his belief in a sinless priesthood was crumbling. It was as if scales were being torn from his eyes. He was reluctant to part with them and see the truth. The evidence of horrendous priestly child abuse that he was obliged to study and decide upon was a stab to the heart.
When his friend Pope St. John Paul II passed away, he was elected Pope to succeed him on 19 April 2005. After silence and faced with the growing outcry, he admitted that there were crimes by priests that had been covered up and he called it “filth” in the church. He removed 400 priests from the priesthood but many remained untouched. Bishops that covered up child abuse by their priests were not held to account other than be allowed to resign. Sadly, he was unable to establish any protocols to address the needs and healing of victims although Benedict did meet with child victims. He began an investigation into child abuse in the Irish church that resulted in the resignation of several bishops.
He did, however, redefine the church’s definition of clerical child sex abuse as a crime against the faith and against the person. Before, it was a crime against chastity, not against an individual child or adult person. Once the darling of the Vatican, Rev. Marcial Maciel, one of the church’s most notorious pedophiles, was finally forced by Benedict to retire “to a life of prayer and penitence.” He was never brought to account or charged despite dozens of victims giving testimony.
Then a financial corruption scandal was revealed in the Vatican. Millions of dollars were unaccounted for. Cardinals were involved and it was exposed in explosive news reports. Benedict’s own personal assistant, Paolo Gabriele, stole important documents from his office that recorded corrupt practices and sold them to the media. They contained revelations of alleged corruption in the Vatican Bank. He said the Pope did not know what was going on around him. Gabriele was charged and jailed in the Vatican cells. He was soon pardoned by Pope Benedict. He died of a mysterious illness in November 2020, aged 54. Perhaps, he knew too much about the real criminals.
A massive investigation followed. A huge dossier detailing corruption and hundreds more sex crimes by clergy, some in the Vatican itself, was presented to Pope Benedict. It was the last straw. He had had enough, his belief and ideal of a perfect priesthood and image of the Holy Church was shattered.
Benedict had the insight and wisdom to know that at his age of 85, he could not deal with such corruption. As an academic, he could not lead the clean up as was his duty. He announced his resignation on 11th February 2013 citing a “lack of strength of mind and body.” That generous and wise decision, the first papal resignation in 600 years, made it possible for Pope Francis to be elected and lead the People of God as the first progressive and liberal Pope in history. We can thank Pope Benedict XVI for that.
But it was not over. In January 2022, while in retirement in the Vatican, an investigative report on child sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Munich from 1945 to 2019 commissioned by the Catholic Archbishop of Munich, was released. Retired Pope Benedict was named as having allowed four priests accused of child abuse to continue in ministry and to have misled investigators in writing. He apologized and humbly said “mistakes have been made.” His legacy as a theologian, author and a humble man of God will live on. (preda.org)/PN
