ROME– Retired Pope
Pope Francis
” The previous pope had the opportunity to do something brave and history-changing today. He could have ended up being the very first pope to admit to intentional coverup and making it possible for of sexual assault. By so doing, he would have set an example of radical truth-telling for other church leaders, including
Lawyers from the Munich firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl last month submitted their report on historical sexual assault in the Archdiocese of Munich-Freising.
himself,” Ms. Barrett Doyle stated.
An accompanying document from his legal representatives rebutted specific charges of perjury, coverup and insensitivity to abuse victims made against the 94-year-old Benedict last month in a church-sponsored probe on historic sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Munich-Freising. The probe faulted the then-archbishop in numerous cases for stopping working to examine, discipline or remove violent priests.
Benedicts attorneys stated that in none of the cases in question did the future pope know that the priests were even believed of sexual assault. His attorneys likewise stated that a mistake in his written answers to the Munich private investigators, which led to allegations of unreliable testimony, was because of a “transcription error.”
Benedict XVI
Anne Barrett Doyle of BishopAccountability.org, which tracks abuse cases around the world, described Benedicts reaction as “a deep frustration and missed out on opportunity.”
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Jimmy Pliska, of Scranton, Pa., is one of those who are looking for settlement from the church for sexual abuse that took place many years back.
” A calm evaluation of his time in Munich reveals that he might have and need to have made the oversight of priests his top priority and downsized on other engagements. Based upon flawed judgment, he trusted fellow priests who let him down, and who concealed abuse and allowed abuse,” said Ulrich Lehner, a teacher of theology at the University of Notre Dame.
The debate has actually left a shadow on Benedicts tradition of combating sexual abuse, which was among the signature reason for his profession as a cardinal and pope after he left Munich for the Vatican.
The Vatican, where the retired pope lives, didnt immediately react to an ask for discuss Tuesday.
to reinforce the churchs response to the problem, centralizing prosecution of clerical abuse cases at the Vatican and improving charges to consist of defrocking, or dismissal from the priesthood.
” An overemphasis on the rights of the implicated has at times made it virtually impossible to convict abusers which mindset stays common,” he wrote in an essay published in 2019. The exact same essay stirred controversy by suggesting that much of the blame for the churchs abuse crisis lay with the sexual transformation in wider Western culture.
But the blot on Benedicts track record originates from his time as Munich archbishop in between 1977 and 1982.
Jimmy Pliska, of Scranton, Pa., is among those who are looking for compensation from the church for sexual assault that took place several years back. He fears he might never know the fact about his alleged abuser if he accepts a settlement. Photo: Alexander Hotz/WSJ (Video from 7/11/19).
The Munich probe isnt the very first time that Benedict has stood accused of mishandling cases of abuse. Among the cases in question was reported throughout Benedicts pontificate, in 2010. At the time, the Archdiocese of Munich-Freising stated that his then-top consultant had actually taken full responsibility for restoring a priest with a record of abuse to ministry in 1980.
By contrast with John Paul, who never ever met abuse victims, Benedict met several times with groups of victims during his journeys, including to the U.S. in 2008.
Clerical sexual assault has actually continued to haunt the leadership of the church over the dozen of years considering that, including in detailed historic research studies of the problem in Germany, France and the U.S
Compose to Francis X. Rocca at francis.rocca@wsj.com.
. Mr. McCarrick, who has denied wrongdoing, ended up being the first cardinal in contemporary times to be removed from the priesthood in 2019, after a Vatican court found him guilty of sexual abuse of minors and sexual misbehavior with grownups.
As pope, Benedict extended the statute of limitations for abuse of minors and Vatican judges during his pontificate rarely lowered the sentences of defrocked abusers on appeal.
St. John Paul II
An accompanying file from his legal representatives rebutted particular charges of coverup, perjury and insensitivity to abuse victims made versus the 94-year-old Benedict last month in a church-sponsored probe on historic sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Munich-Freising. He might have ended up being the very first pope to confess to intentional coverup and enabling of sexual abuse. Clerical sexual abuse has actually continued to haunt the leadership of the church over the lots of years considering that, consisting of in in-depth historic research studies of the problem in Germany, France and the U.S
. In 2020, a Vatican report revealed that three successive popes, consisting of Benedict, had actually failed to discipline the U.S. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick regardless of extensive reports of his sexual misconduct. Mr. McCarrick, who has actually denied misbehavior, became the first cardinal in contemporary times to be removed from the priesthood in 2019, after a Vatican court discovered him guilty of sexual abuse of minors and sexual misconduct with adults.
Even in retirement, he called for more rigor in prosecuting cases of clerical sex abuse by church authorities.
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Mr. Lehner stated that Cardinal Ratzinger learned from his errors and, as head of the Vaticans doctrinal office, “he did not delegate, but took on the issue, even versus significant resistance from the pope and other cardinals.”
For more than 20 years prior to his election as pope in 2005, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was the Vaticans anti-abuse czar. In that function, he pushed
