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Frantzesco Kangaris / AFP/Getty Images
Demonstrators hold placards during a march protesting against the Pope Benedict XVI's visit to London on Sept. 18, 2010. Pope Benedict XVI expressed his "deep sorrow" Saturday for the "immense suffering" of children abused by Catholic priests, in a homily on the third day of his state visit to Britain.
As Pope Benedict XVI’s prepares to step down, his legacy is being viewed through the prism of how he handled the child sex abuse crisis, with some observers saying he dealt with it aggressively while others calling his response to the scandals “woefully inadequate.”
During Benedict’s eight-year papacy, thousands of people came forward to claim that they had been raped or molested by priests as children, and that bishops had covered it up.
As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, it was Benedict’s old office that dealt with abuse cases, yet he never admitted failure by himself or of the Vatican, and never punished bishops who ignored or covered up the abuse.
“It’s hard to escape the fact that his biggest challenge was the sex abuse crisis and it really didn’t get better during his papacy,” said Michael D’Antonio, author of the upcoming book “Mortal Sins: Sex, Crime, and the Era of Catholic Scandal.” “And in fact, one can see that the church declined in moral authority, especially in the developed world and that includes places like Ireland and Belgium, which were until a few years ago the most Catholic and the most conservatively Catholic countries in the world. And all of this, I really think is traceable to his failure.”
Benedict was “locked into an institution that may not be able to deal with this in a structural way,” he added. “He could go around and minister to victims, which he did, and I think that was a brave and profound thing to do, but he couldn’t change the definitive elements of the Catholic Church that enable abuse.”
Benedict made apologies and met with victims in the United States, Australia, his native Germany, Britain and Malta. The church also paid out more than $2.1 billion in settlements from 2004-2011 to victims, according to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
In 2002, before he took up the papal post, a zero tolerance policy was implemented. But those efforts were not enough, critics said.
One victims’ rights group, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, called on Benedict to use his remaining days in the post to turn that around by forcing bishops to reveal the names of those priests facing credible accusations of abuse.
Carl Court / AFP/Getty Images
Demonstrators hold placards before a march protesting against the Pope Benedict XVI's visit to London on Sept. 18, 2010. Pope Benedict XVI expressed his "deep sorrow" Saturday for the "immense suffering" of children abused by Catholic priests, in a homily on the third day of his state visit to Britain.
“We can’t mistake words for deeds and, you know, actions speak louder than statements and to be honest with you, we feel that his response has been woefully inadequate,” said Barbara Blaine, the group’s president.
Another group, BishopAccountability.org, a library and internet archive of the scandals, welcomed the church’s efforts to address the troubles among its ranks, such as tackling the issue directly on the Vatican website and by making adjustments to its youth policy.
But the site’s founder, Terence McKiernan, said Ratzinger, even before taking on the papal post, was dogged by the scandal since he had read so many of the accounts of abuse in his role as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
He said Ratzinger had followed Pope John Paul II’s policy of not defrocking all accused priests — noting that the church was already concerned about losing priests to old age and dwindling seminary numbers.
“I think that it’s a huge opportunity missed, you know, people will say he did things and that’s certainly true,” McKiernan said. “But given the enormity of the crimes … and given the enormous power that the Pope has, I think that you could say that Benedict reacted to all of this rather than taking action. And apologies and nice speeches are not the same as actually taking vigorous action to remove the people responsible and revealing all the information that needs to be revealed. So it’s an opportunity missed, and I think as a result, the church has lost incredible amounts of credibility in all this.”
Vincenzo Pinto / AFP/Getty Images
Pope Benedict XVI puts oil on the altar during the Mass to mark the dedication of the new white marble altar in St. Mary Cathedral in Sydney on July 19, 2008. Pope Benedict XVI apologized explicitly to victims of sex abuse by Catholic clergy, expressing his shame and calling for perpetrators of the "evil" to be brought to justice.
Benedict officially leaves office on Feb. 28. One of those who will participate in electing his successor, Retired Cardinal Roger Mahony, Archbishop Emeritus of Los Angeles, was himself stripped of his administrative and public duties in early February after church personnel files revealed that he and other top Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles officials maneuvered behind the scenes to shield molester priests, provide damage control for the church and keep parishioners in the dark, NBC Los Angeles reported.
Still, some felt Benedict did step up to tackle the issue engulfing the church.
“He inherited a very tragic situation and he confronted it head on and has been a great reformer on this issue,” said Maureen Ferguson, a senior policy adviser at The Catholic Association. “The Catholic Church in the United States is now one of the leading institutions in terms of child protection policies.”
Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, agreed.
“Nobody clearly did more to counter this problem in the Catholic Church,” he said. “ … he did move expeditiously, quite frankly, with a lot greater aggressiveness than his predecessor. John Paul II was a great man but this issue did languish there in the Vatican until Joseph Ratzinger … was able to deal with it.”
Donohue said that about a month before Ratzinger was named Pope, he spoke about the “filth” in the Catholic Church, referring to priests who were sexually abusing children.
He also banished a popular priest from ministry, Father Marcial Maciel, the founder of the Legionaries of Christ, who was accused of sexually abusing underage seminaries, according to the National Catholic Reporter.
“He took a position which took a great deal of courage to go against a very popular priest,” Donohue said. “An investigation of him had begun (under) John Paul II but it took Benedict to finish him, and he did finish him.”
“I think history will treat him very well in terms of dealing with the problem,” he added. “I think the issue is basically behind us, almost everything we hear today are these old cases.”
But D’Antonio wasn’t sure history would be so favorable to Benedict.
“He would have had to pick up the church and drag it into the 21st century but, you know, he could have,” he said. “He might have died trying, the stress of that might have been even more profound, he would have faced tremendous intrigue and opposition, but I suspect that instead he may go down in history as a caretaker, an interpersonally kind pastor who made no mark when he had the chance to.”
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"The Catholic Church in the United States is now one of the leading institutions in terms of child protection policies."
Lesson: rape little boys and then claim credit for drafting a policy to protect children. How many priests/bishops went to jail? I need only one hand to count.
Stop the planet, I want to get off.
Please do you scumbag.
I'm very happy to see the Roman Church crumbling. There is nothing Christian about the hierarchy. Yes there are some priests and nuns that do good work, but at the core, the Roman Church is an anti-Christ entity. They have been corrupted for almost 2000 years by the power they wield.
An old man wearing a dress and a beanie or pointed hat, dressed in VERY expensive designer footwear, with plenty of preciuous metal and gems liberaly displayed, is the very antithasis to the teachings of Christ.
All things outlive their usefulness and the Roman Church was finished centuries ago but they have implanted a psychological block to the truth of what they are and so they go on and on in the franchise business with a tax free deal and a license to beg.
Let us not forget they were into torture, burning people alive and the Pope having women in secret or little boys, girls and young men. It's their history. They, then and now, liberally violate the teachings of Christ.
1) You are not giving the complete history, are twisting truth, and are stating blatant untruths. Your post violates the teachings of Christ. But, we forgive you and others of your ilk who 'do not know what they do.'
2) Any large institution is going to have people in it that sin. Take the United States presidency, take Congress, take the US as a whole and the atrocities our country has committed. That doesn't mean the institution as a whole is bad - just that it is made up of imperfect humans.
ATHEIST@ Go back into your hole.
First step to recovery is admitting you have a problem.
Believing a cherry crapped a zombie is a mental illness. Get help.
You cannot put yourself up as the "Moral Compass" if you have no morals yourself.
It was his office that "investigated" claims of abuse before he was Pope. To do anything less than to come into power and not throw these perverted animals to the curb is an insult to humanity.
OMG, "he feels sorrow", BS, he knows and feels nothing.
Morality.
I don't have to believe in absolutes to make a moral pronouncement. Slavery is wrong. You won't find that in the book Jesus & Yahweh wrote. Just think about that. Why might that be? Weird, isn't it? All the more weird for those who claim it is the most important book ever written.
Of course, the answer is that it isn't a supernatural book. It was written by humans who didn't know that broken brains cause seizures, not demons.
Don't believe it. Day late and a dollar short. Who would want the job of "new pope"? They will never have a moment's peace.
The Roman Catholic Church has a huge liability issues as more and more individuals come forth to admit that they too were the victim of a Roman Catholic priest or Brother.
I for one cannot see how the Roman Catholics can deal with a dwindling congregation and large self-induced liabilities.
I see God as the creator of the Universe. God created the Big Bang, and all of the rest - including the miracle of human life - is probability distribution.
Humans are separated from God by the Big Bang; so any claim that a human "talked to God" is completely and utterly false.
The only way to address the main problem facing the World - overpopulation - is to get rid of "Godspeak" religions.
Overpopulation is a myth.
zupercram, would you call more than five billion persons a myth? There are too many people, not enough food or medications, or at least food and medications that get to people that need it most. Water is becoming in short supply in a hurry, there's too much fertilization, we're befouling our planet worse than they did during the Industrial Revolution, admittedly only because we have so many more people on our home ground.
How many people is overpopulation? Five billion, eight, 14? Granted people are living longer, but the birth rate among developing and underdeveloped nations is rising. And the anti-abortion, regardless of situation, anti-birth control Catholic Church with its more than one billion adherents does't help. Unless of course the Priests are buggering little boys and girls. That doesn't count for the rise in population.
We have overpopulation, need to find other rocks to send people to (the Moon and Mars first) that can either be terraformed or have people burrow into the rock, so many things to alleviate our present population.
Take your myth myth and STFU.
zupercram = troll. Don't Feed Troll.
Same old article from MSNBC, same old attacks.
Hey Miranda, did you just copy/paste from the hundred other articles on MSNBC on the same subject this past month?
It is moral and civilized to find child rapists and those who hide them amongst the most troubling situations humans create. Children with sore bottoms is never an old news story and must not be forgotten.
I absolutely agree with that part, but if it's MSNBC's job to inform on current events (pretending it's not really about ad revenue for a sec), then when is the point at which MSNBC says, "If folks don't know by now, they probably never will."
My personal view on the subject is that anyone who is guilty of rape (child or adult) should spend the rest of their life in prison, whether they're a Catholic priest or a bus driver. The fact that these sickos use my religion as a shield only pisses me off more.
The bottom line is that the actions of a few pervos and some seriously misguided bishops who wanted to preserve the Catholic Church don't de-legitimize the whole organization. Also, MSNBC needs to move on (to a point). If there's genuine new news about the situation, go ahead and report it. And it's hardly headline news every 10 days anymore. A decade ago, sure, but not now.
To me the papacy is antichrist, but previous popes probably deserve more blame than this pope, but the others are dead, and Benedict became the fall guy. He has his share of the blame, but what did previous popes know when most of the abuse occurred?
And what about his time before he was Pope? He covered up abuse cases then as well. For that alone he deserves more blame than other popes.
There will always be lowlifes who molest children, despite strict laws and threats of punishment. Using the NRA's analogous argument against gun laws, this means we should have no laws against child abuse. If you ban guns, only criminals will have guns -- and if you ban child abuse, only child abusers will abuse children. See if you can spot the flaw in the NRA's logic.
Awwww....that poor pope. Too bad the papacy of those who claim to follow Jesus do not heed His teachings nor do as He says. "why do you call me Lord, yet do not what I say?" They serve one other than Jesus, or else their fruit would be show what Jesus taught.
Catholic hater
No I hate that the damn church hid and moved molestors and did nothing to protect the damn children. It sickens me that so many were abused and so little done until they were forced to.
No, Lee sounds like a True Christian to me, not a Catholic Hater.
This pope was in THE central position at the Vatican to do something during the height of the molestations. His inaction(at best) allowed hundreds of more children to be abused and the perps to find new targets. He then protected the criminals and ordered the hiding of church assets so no victim could litigate. What a scumbag!! If you don't believe me then watch Mia Maxima Culpa. What's amazing is that millions still believe in these fakes and give them money and power. What a joke....
I also watched that the other night and myself find it very interesting that Benedict/Ratzinger stepping down has come within the week of that film's premiere. It was never said in the film but it looked very much too me that Benedict/Ratzinger was rewarded with the Papacy for not doing anything about the sexual abuse by priests as requested by Pope John Paul II/Wojtyła while Ratzinger was head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith(also known as The Inquisition back in the day). Also very interesting to find out that John Paul II protected a pedophile priest personally because the priest was a master fundraiser and his group of priests brought vast sums of money into the church coffers. When I saw the story the other day about the LA diocese wanting to do a $200 million fund raiser I thought it funny and sad. Funny that they'd ask the people they failed to protect to help pay and sad that they probably will.
Not only is it bizarre he abdicates but the whole circus that is the Catholic ritual is even still around after all these years. The whole of the Catholic hierarchy is corrupt!
People are corrupt.
There are "no tolerance" policies set forth in situations less important than this. I am not really sure the Pope, or the "holy" Catholic Church, at this point, can ever make it right. Too much damage has been done to too many. So here's a thought...does anyone really believe that the next Pope is going to be able to fix this? Doubtful. The ONLY way would be to accept FULL responsibility for the past, and go with FULL disclosure on all claims of abuse. The Pope can travel the world over and over - but until THEIR tenets change (for example - maybe allowing Priests to marry...?) these travesties are going to continue to happen. It is NOT human nature to suppress one's sexuality. Procreation is why we humans are put on this earth. And the ONLY thing stronger in basic human nature than procreation is our instinct for survival.
But the Catholic church preaches that Priests can't "give to God" (choke) and be in a sexual relationship at the same time. PuuuLease! They also don't believe in birth control. Oookay...so if you have 15 kids and no way to feed, clothe and house them - is the "church going to step in and provide? NO! The "church" would be more IN the money - helping these poor sods that believe birth control is wrong, than paying out sexual abuse claims. Seriously?
Not to throw pearls, but . . . the Church will always stand.
If by "the church" you mean the body of believers, then yes I agree. If you mean Catholic church then I disagree.
The article mentions issues that certainly are important and tragic and are issues that he addressed.
But, his papacy will be known for the wonderful encyclicals/writings/teachings that are beyond anything written or thought about in modern times.
Tell that to the abused children he didn't protect. Sorry if your words don't ring hollow to those of us who care about what is right in this world.
To summarize Ratzinger's encyclicals:
"Gays are an abomination and should be treated as 2nd-class citizens, otherwise the world will end."
"Girls are icky and should be denied reproductive health care, as well as a meaningful role in the church."
"Don't call the cops."
Oh look, a heated religious debate on an article regarding Christianity. Oh world, you're so predictable. I mean, it's not like people are entitled to their own beliefs right? What an absolutely ludicrous idea.
Beliefs, yes. Using those beliefs to justify covering up serious crimes, no.
It's not like religion deserves special protection from legitimate criticism or anything.
He had one of the highest most influential positions on this planet earth. I can respect it when he's stepping down because his own judgement tells him he's getting too old for the job. Most people would cling on to the power. Yes, there was a lot of scandals concerning sexual abuse and otherwise. But please, did John Paul II do anything at all?? He surely knew about this when he was pope.
Abuse, be it sexual or otherwise, is a huge problem in our soceity and still not being dealt with properly in all sorts of daily situations. It should be a taboo but most of us grow up with it in one or the other form. Being a Katholic myself, I would like to ask the Vatican to allow females to become pastors and priests, and also to banish the required celibacy. I think that would solve a lot of the sexual abuse problems.
An institution slowly crumbling from its own internal corruptions going back centuries and struggling desperately against the inevitable. Even in its strongholds people are turning Protestants, atheists, pagans, etc. Now the Ratzinger is deserting the mother ship. They hope a non-European, non-white Pope will excite the ex-faithful to get back into the fold.
I applaude the Pope's decision. The church has a major problem that is NOT going away. It's time for the Bishop's to fess up with the names of the Priests molesting children. Isn't there a law that says if you know a criminal act is being done you must tell the authorities or you can face similar charges as the accused...Maybe it's time for the Police to investigate and put an end to the senseless suffering of these children being molested ON CHURCH PROPERTY....This saddens me...I think Jesus must be crying at what is happening in God's house of worship. Let's pray that these Priest's do the right thing and turn themselves in.
How about we DEMAND an external investigation into the CC and its criminal priests? "Pray" the priests turn themselves in?? Gimme a break...
The implication that the Pope was simply a "caretaker of the Church" and not a man of action is slanderous.
In a 2001 letter to Catholic bishops he very forcefully spelled out the Church's position on sexual abuse of minors, declaring them subject to the "pontifical secret", and threatening excommunication of anyone who revealed the abuse to civil authorities.
The letter states that the church's jurisdiction 'begins to run from the day when the minor has completed the 18th year of age' and lasts for 10 years.
It orders that 'preliminary investigations' into any claims of abuse should be sent to Ratzinger's office, which has the option of referring them back to private tribunals in which the 'functions of judge, promoter of justice, notary and legal representative can validly be performed for these cases only by priests'.
'Cases of this kind are subject to the pontifical secret,' Ratzinger's letter concludes. Breaching the pontifical secret at any time while the 10-year jurisdiction order is operating carries penalties, including the threat of excommunication.
Oh boo hoo. All you Catholics defending this creep need to grow up. He knew about cases of abuse and did nothing. And guess who else did that? Shaky Pope John Paul II. And you nut jobs are going to make him into a saint soon. What a corrupt, vile organization. The day the Catholic Church crumbles will be a banner day for humanity. They are a cancer on this planet.
Atheist go back in your hole? Catholics outraged by comments? I'd rather be an atheist any day than belong to an organization that covers up for people who butt @!$%# little boys. A crude but very accurate description of the catholic church, from the hitler youth retiring pope on down.
Too bad Ratzinger himself was directly involved in covering up the horrible crimes of at least three pedophile priests, Stephen Kiesle in California, Peter Hullermann in Bavaria, and the even more notorious Marcial Maciel.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/10/world/europe/10pope.html
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/sex-abuse-scandal-did-archbishop-ratzinger-help-shield-perpetrator-from-prosecution-a-684970.html
One of the most infamous abuse cases Ratzinger covered up involved Father Maciel, of the Catholic order "Legion of Christ", a priest who raped and tortured dozens of children.......including a girl who was his daughter through an illicit affair. Maciel however was a great fundraiser and the church has always been more concerned with money than the welfare of children, so it was easy for Ratzinger to ignore Maciel's crimes. It wasn't until Maciel's daughter came forward with abuse charges that Ratzinger took any action at all.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/apr/24/children.childprotection1
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/father-marcial-maciel-dad-sexually-abused-raul-gonzalez-claims-lawsuit-article-1.181520
Of course, as the Prefect of the Vatican's "Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith" (formerly known as the "Roman Inquisition" and the "Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition"), Ratzinger had direct responsibility for helping to cover up the crimes of thousands of pedophile priests around the world from 1981-2005. Since the Monsignor William Lynne case reveals that the Catholic church has a pattern of hiding any documentation which shows the extent of Vatican involvement with individual dioceses which cover up abuse scandals, we'll probably never know how deeply Ratzinger was involved in the current Mahony scandal in LA where the church hid the crimes of at least 122 pedophiles ........but given the strict hierarchical structure of the church it's very likely Ratzinger was personally involved as Prefect just as he was with Kiesle, Hullermann and Maciel.
How about "Woefully Antiquated"? Why do the Catholics still require a king (pope)? I guess nearly 2000 years of archaic anti-science tradition is hard to break.
I will mention what the liberal arts majors in puncuation avoid at all cost: anal poop sex is a vile, sick, degenerate (and most hideous of all) a disease spreading act that endangers way, way more humans than stupid liberal causes like big gulps, guns etc), but not any where near the amount from vile abortion (a whole other topic).
I dont care if two heteros, two smurfs or two gays are wallowing in their own fesces...I will not be shamed by ignorant or filty people who refuse to look in the mirror and see what degenerarte pigs they have become.
Mankind did not evolve for millions of years by wallowing in their bacteria infested poop.
Weak,lispy liberal librarians stick a flower dog turd and call it a flower pot..when its just animal dirt.
Sadly a clean person will get sick of die from a transfusion from tainted blood or food (btw- anyboy who eats out in a major city is a fool - poop under every fingernail...I know it disgusting and thats the point.
So all you ass rapering pigs go out and publically support your analy poop sex and see how many people shake your filthy hand (only satan himself knows where its been)
Vile is vile and you cant talk your way out of it...millions of years of evolution say so.
His retirement could offer an opportunity for Pope Benedict XVI to open the vaults of secrecy, crime, deception and cover up on child sexual abuse by the Catholic Church. Could public opinion/pressure with letters around the world bear some pressure for him to leave it as his legacy?
Someone Else Pull the Cart, you are right, vile, vile, vile distills out of your puritan mouth; and nothing but filth came off the sexual abuse of innocents which seems to be OK with you.
He can go to work for NAMBLA as a consultant and trainer. To teach them the ropes on how to molest and cover-up.
... They have been doing this for centuries, it has only recently caught up with them.