"Secrecy is a luxury no longer available to Benedict. The recent revelations of sex-abuse scandals in Europe have smashed the perception that predatory priests are an American anomaly. Hundreds of accusations, from Ireland and now mainland Europe, have thrust the Vatican into the grip of its greatest crisis since the 2002 revelations of abuse in the U.S. The church's standing is falling to new lows among believers in its European heartland. Sensing the growing public alarm, some within the clergy are pushing for profound institutional and ecclesiastical changes, including an end to the priesthood's fundamental tenet of celibacy.
For the Pope, all this has become deeply personal: many of the latest scandals are rooted in his native Germany, and they have dragged in his own brother, who headed a famous Bavarian choir at a school where young boys were allegedly abused. Benedict himself stands accused of poorly handling the case of a pedophile priest when he was Archbishop of Munich and Freising in the early 1980s. While there's virtually no chance of the Pope himself being brought down — the last time a Pontiff bowed out in disgrace was in 1046 (Gregory VI, for financial impropriety) — it is entirely possible the scandals will permanently sully his papacy. "This is going to be a major part of his legacy," says an American priest in Rome who asked not to be named.
The Pope's defenders say he has tried hard to force the church to confront its demons openly. "As Pope, he has been unusually and laudably aggressive in dealing with abusers," says David Gibson, author of a Benedict biography. Benedict has on several occasions called for "absolute transparency" on sexual abuse. During a visit to Washington, D.C., in 2008, he met in private with some victims of abuse by American priests. But he has been remarkably unforthcoming about the latest scandals."
Source: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1973213,00.html
Eds note: Has anyone else noticed that this Pope lately seems to be called more often by his real name Joseph Ratzinger than by his chosen name of Benedict? Any suggestion as to the implications of that trend?
1 comment:
Previous Popes had an almost mythical spiritual quality to them, but not so with Ratzinger. Having a chance to watch the politics behind his election as Pope took away any of that other worldliness and left most people seeing him simply as the elected CEO of the Catholic church. For that reason, many people think of him as Ratzinger instead of Pope so-and-so.
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