The mea culpa of Benedict XVI: The complaints about how he managed the abuse of minors tarnish his legacy

The cover-up accusations against Benedict XVI they had an answer. On Tuesday, the pope emeritus decided to speak and apologized for the sexual abuse against minors committed by members of the clergy during his career as an official of the Catholic Churchbut denied having protected priests.

“Once again I can only express to all victims of sexual abuse my deep shame, my great pain and my sincere request for forgiveness. I have had a great responsibility”, he wrote in a letter and in response to an investigation that reveals that he knew of these facts and chose to turn his face away.

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who point to Benedict XVI, 94 years old and pontiff between 2005 and 2013are a team of lawyers who work on behalf of the Archdiocese of Munich, of which Joseph Ratzinger was archbishop between 1977 and 1982. In the delivered document, hundreds of cases of sexual abuse that took place over decades are collected. But it is not the only thing.

According to the EFE agency, the investigation accuses “the successive ecclesiastical hierarchies” of not taking action on the matter or simply covering them up.

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There are four cases that developed during Ratzinger’s administration“allegedly committed by two clerics providing spiritual assistance and against whom no action was taken at all”. And, in conclusion, the lawyers maintain that the pope emeritus was “most likely” aware of what was happening.

The historian and specialist in the Catholic Church, Juan Fonseca, believes that the scandal and the letter affect the legacy of Benedict XVI. “During his pontificate, he wanted to demonstrate that there was a change in the attitude of the hierarchy in relation to pederasty, that the culture of secrecy was abandoned, of passing through lukewarm water in these cases, to be much more aggressive against pedophile priests.”.

But the conclusions of the Munich diocese leave him in a bad light. “His letter is a kind of act of public penance”.

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Image from September 11, 2002. German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger with Pope John Paul II. AP (Pier Paolo Cito/)

the condemnation of the past

Fonseca is one of those who recognizes that, in the last years of the pontificate of Benedict XVI and now with him Pope Franciscothere are concrete attempts to improve procedures regarding cases of sexual abuse.

“Ratzinger proposed interesting reforms to make it easier for dioceses to denounce priests, he tried to open possibilities for pedophile priests to be removed from the Church in collaboration with civil authorities. The issue is that, in many cases, they were not applied by the same traditions of the clergy“, he says Trade.

But the conclusions of the investigation reveal a more complex reality: that even when trying to reform the Church, “the past weighs”.

“This shows the contradictions of the Church, at least of the high hierarchies. That is to say, they were not always like this: here it is evident that, at other times in Ratzinger’s personal history and in the contemporary history of the Church, there was not that attitude that they now try to have.”.

How will history judge Ratzinger? For Fonseca, this period will be seen as a turning point. “He is assuming the sins that the Church committed for so long, even though he himself was the one who tried to fight them the most.”.

“As well as others, I am one of those who maintains the thesis that part of the motivations for his resignation was the verification that he did not have the moral, spiritual or physical strength to fight what he himself called ‘filth’ “.

“In this sense, he will be remembered as one of the popes who finally decided to face the monster, even though he himself was part of the monster.”.

Photo from February 28, 1982, showing Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger at a public event. PA (dpa/)

The path of reforms

The Pope Francisco walk the path that Ratzinger opened. It is recalled that, in October of last year, due to the uncovering of several cases of sexual abuse in a church frenchHe said: “I wish to express to the victims my sadness and my pain for the traumas suffered and also my shame, our shame, for the inability of the Church for a long time to put them at the center of her concerns”.

To this should be added that, in a Vatican document, it was argued that the Church should “face their inner disbelief and corruption” and not to forget “the suffering” of victims of sexual abuse, “of power and conscience committed by a notable number of clerics and consecrated persons”.

Will more investigations begin to be carried out to prosecute cases of pederasty within the church? “I wish it was like that”, comments Fonseca.

At least, says the specialist, the German church, considered one of the most progressive in the world, is setting an example. The problem, he says, is the “culture” of centuries that makes priests and hierarchs see cases of sexual abuse “as a moral sin and not a crime”.

“As Slavoj Zizek would say, pederasty has been the ‘obscene secret supplement‘ of the Church, something that was known, but that was not pointed out because, in some way, it was what sustained the system”.

“There are some sectors of the Catholic Church that are already taking steps to move away from that, but that could take decades, even centuries. Changes in the church are very slow”.

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Source: Elcomercio