“The reason some see a ‘failed papacy’ is that they want to see just that,” said Carl Anderson of the Zenit News. “Too many in Europe want to see this papacy fail—any papacy fail—because the Church stands counter to their secularist agenda,”
There are both reasons to refute these sex scandal accusations directed at Benedict and to support them. In 1980 Pope Benedict XVI, at the time Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger, supposedly allowed Peter Hullerman, a priest, to go to therapy. This priest was previously accused of molesting kids, but after therapy he was allowed to resume normal obligations by Benedict’s subordinates. However, Benedict could have known about this. After Hullerman returned to normal duties, he abused more kids which led to his conviction in 1986.
“The pope’s reluctance to take a firm stance on sexual abuse by priests is expanding into a crisis for the Catholic Church and fueling outrage over his papacy,” reported members of the Spiegel staff. “Some Catholics are now even calling on Benedict, who has committed a series of gaffes since becoming pope in 2005, to resign.”
While most of the attention is to how Pope Benedict has covered up the sex abuses, some other facts are overlooked. In the 1990s Benedict attempted to have a full investigation of Cardinal Hans Groer who was accused of being a pedophile. However, the Vatican decided not to pursue the case. In 2001 Pope Benedict XVI also helped persuade Pope John Paul II to make a better and more organized system to deal with sex abuse allegations. This system was brought about to reduce the older, less structured system.
Despite these past acts there are two other major accusations against the pope. In addition to the one with Hullerman, there are cases concerning Murphy and the handling of sex accusations in general. In the 1960s and 1970s a Wisconsin priest, Lawrence Murphy, supposedly molested up to 200 deaf kids. Despite the kids of the school trying to get word out about Murphy, there was no visible action taken by the police or other civil authorities. There was going to be a canonical trial in 1996 addressing the issue, but a cardinal stopped the trial. Right before the trial was stopped, Murphy had written to Benedict asking the trial not to be held due to his poor health and sorrow for his sins. However, there is no evidence that Benedict had anything to do with stopping the trial, and there is no indication that he replied to the letters. Therefore, it’s unsure what, if anything, Benedict had to do with the trial.
Pope Benedict has also been accused that the Vatican moves too slowly in removing priests from the priesthood even after already removing them from the ministry. However, these accusations are from the 1980s and 1990s when he wasn’t pope. Regardless, some people still are mad at this.
“[We have to] get the filth out of the priesthood,” said Pope Benedict XVI.
Despite these accusations against the pope, in recent talks he appears to want to punish pedophile priests. He also apparently has remorse. However, Mark Serrano makes an opposing viewpoint.
“When the Pope can’t bring himself to utter the words ‘pedophile priest’… it’s hard to have faith that he is able to honestly and effectively deal with this growing crisis,” says Mark Serrano, a spokesperson for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
While all the media coverage makes it sound like the Pope has an out of control abuse situation, in reality actually 0.74% of priests are believed to be involved in the sex scandal according to CARA.
Some people such as atheist and author Richard Dawkins want to have the pope arrested when he visits Britain from September 16-19 for his “crimes”. Even if he was found guilty he couldn’t be prosecuted under international law due to his status of head of state (The Holy See is a country that the pope is in charge).
On April 17, 2010 the Vatican put a statement on its website that bishops should report abuse crimes to police where required by local law. However, even though this is considered to be an old policy others claim the Vatican is “shifting the blame to the Bishops” and trying to change the past. Whether or not this is a step in the right direction or not an author made an observation.
“At least five times the Faith has, to all appearance, gone to the dogs. In each of these five cases, it was the dog that died,” said G.K. Chesterton, an English author.
To see the sources used go to: http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0ATcDnWSEByaHZGYzZDZ2cG1fOTRjY2NjazJjYg&hl=en
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