The Truth About Benedict and Abuse in the Church
by Fr. Roger Landry - April 16, 2010
Today is Pope Benedict's 83rd birthday. The last few weeks have likely seemed for him as long as years, but some semblance of sanity seems to be returning, at least among those who take an honest look at facts and then draw conclusions rather than draw conclusions and then look at facts.
As we have been stressing in these pages, to defend Pope Benedict is not to deny that the double-evil of the sexual abuse of minors and the lack of a prompt, thorough and fully Christian response by Church leaders, occurred. These evils did occur, but the cause of justice is not advanced by trying to pretend that the fundamental blame for them rests with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger rather than with the abusive priests and their irresponsible immediate superiors. We have emphasized that, rather than abetting these evils, the man who became Pope Benedict XVI is one of the true heroes of the Church's response, courageously pushing the Church at the highest levels — many of whom were in denial about the extent of the abominations — to respond adequately, decisively, forthrightly and (by historical Vatican standards) rapidly to discipline priests and protect Christ's flock.
The truth of Cardinal Ratzinger's real role as a crucial part of the solution not the problem is beginning to become apparent even to those who are among the fiercest critics of the Church's overall handling of the sexual abuse of minors. Jason Berry, the investigative journalist who in 1997 exposed the sexual abuse by Fr. Marcial Maciel, the founder of the Legionaries of Christ, described in an April 6 article in the National Catholic Reporter how Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger acted almost alone against other powerful forces in the Vatican to push an investigation of Fr. Maciel that eventually led to his being disgracefully disciplined.
New York Times columnist Ross Douthat argued in an April 12 article that such an approach was not an "isolated case" for Ratzinger. "In the 1990s, it was Ratzinger who pushed for a full investigation of Hans Hermann Groer, the Vienna cardinal accused of pedophilia, only to have his efforts blocked in the Vatican. It was Ratzinger who persuaded John Paul, in 2001, to centralize the church's haphazard system for handling sex abuse allegations in his office. It was Ratzinger who re-opened the long-dormant investigation into Maciel's conduct in 2004, just days after John Paul II had honored the Legionaries in a Vatican ceremony. It was Ratzinger, as Pope Benedict, who banished Maciel to a monastery and ordered a comprehensive inquiry into his order."
George Weigel amplified Douthat's point in a April 12 column on FirstThings.com. "The truth seems to have gotten out, if slowly and incompletely, [that] the single most influential figure in reshaping the Roman Curia's attitude toward these scandals and the Church's legal practice in dealing with them, was Joseph Ratzinger, now Benedict XVI. The plaintiff's bar cannot concede this, for to do so would be to destroy the narrative it has been selling to the world media; Ratzinger's enemies cannot concede this, for they have never been able to find good in him; and European secularists cannot concede this, for in their minds the Church is, in principle, irreformably corrupt. But those willing to look at facts and evidence have begun to understand just how crucial a role Ratzinger played in ensuring that 2010 did not automatically become 2002" all over again. Weigel candidly notes that "there is no harm in acknowledging that, like just about everyone else, Joseph Ratzinger was on a learning curve in dealing with abusive clergy and malfeasant bishops; the point to be stressed, however, is that he learned faster, and acted more decisively on what he had learned, than just about anyone else.
In his column Weigel also provided other reasons why 2010 is not 2002 all over again, which American Catholics, beleaguered and still righteously indignant about the multivalent evil that took place in the Church, need to keep in mind.
"During the Long Lent [of 2002], the press played an important role in dragging into the light of day awful things the Church had failed to confront, or had confronted ineptly. The shame of that period still stings, as do the wounds suffered by victims. Yet 2010 is not 2002, and that is in large measure due to 2002. Despite the ignorance and tendentiousness displayed by too many journalists and commentators in recent weeks, the facts are slowly getting out, thanks in part to the unprecedented studies and audits authorized by the bishops of the United States in the wake of the Long Lent. Reasonable people whose perceptions are not warped by the toxin of anti-Catholicism or who are not pursuing other (often financially-driven) agendas now recognize that the Church in the U.S. and Canada has [made] enormous efforts towards cleaning up what Cardinal Ratzinger called in 2005 its 'filth,' to the point where the Catholic Church today can be empirically shown to be the safest environment for young people and children in North America. The paralyzing drumbeat of one ghastly new story after another that went on all during 2002 has not been repeated. What we now have is, largely, the recycling of old material, usually provided to the press by contingent-fee attorneys whose strategic goal is to build a public 'narrative' of conspiracy that will shape American courts' decisions as to whether the Vatican and its resources can be brought within range of U.S. liability law. The realization among serious Catholics that this is not 2002 and that things have changed dramatically since 2002, has led to a far more confident effort to fight back against misrepresentations such as those the [New York] Times perpetrated on March 25."
One such response against misrepresentation, he said, concerns an honest critique of the motivation of some of those attacking the Church. "Are those most vigorously agitating these abuse/misgovernance issues today genuinely interested in the safety of young people and children, or are they using the failures of the past to cripple the moral credibility of the Catholic Church in the present and future? That question would have rightly struck many people as a dodge in 2002. It cannot be credibly regarded as a dodge today, because of what the Church has done since 2002." If the motivation of some of the principal agitators were really about protecting children from the scourge of sexual abuse, we would anticipate that they would be seeking to attack abuse wherever it is found. As multiple studies have amply demonstrated, the sexual abuse of minors is just as prevalent in other religious denominations as in the Catholic Church, and much more prevalent in places like public schools, homes with live in boyfriends, and even, per capita, among U.S. swim coaches, as a recent television special demonstrated. While we believe that the Church should be held to a higher standard than other institutions, the fact that the Church has received the disproportionate attention of contingency lawyers, some state legislatures, and some segments of the media do suggest, objectively, that something more the protection of children is going on.
Weigel finishes his article by arguing how the reforms begun in 2002 need to be accelerated and expanded. "If 2010 is not to become 2002 redivivus, the Holy See must make unmistakably clear that in addition to swift action against abusive priests, the Church is prepared to take swift and decisive action against episcopal misgovernance. The right to choose bishops carries with it the responsibility to address episcopal failure, even by the ultimate remedy of deposition in extreme cases. Procedures for accelerating the laicization of abusive clergy have been put in place in Rome; parallel procedures for determining when a bishop has lost the capacity to govern because of a thorough and irremediable collapse of his credibility as a leader and shepherd ought to be devised and implemented."
As we celebrate Benedict's birthday today and the fifth anniversary of his election on Monday, we pray that the Lord may bless him with the courage, stamina and years to continue the reform in which he has already played such an important role.
Father Roger J. Landry is pastor of St. Anthony of Padua in New Bedford, MA and Executive Editor of The Anchor, the weekly newspaper of the Diocese of Fall River.
