Word: benedict
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...current pedophile-priest scandal - what the Catholic writer and papal critic Andrew Sullivan pointedly refers to as "child rape" by clergy - has transfixed Catholics around the world, particularly with the allegations out of Germany that Benedict XVI, then Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger of Munich, may have allowed a transferred priest accused of sexual abuse to work again with children. The scandal has had a telling effect on the tradition-bound Holy See. High-ranking clerics have complained of media bias and a conspiracy against the Pope. One well-placed Vatican official who worked closely with the Pope when...
...case that has gotten the greatest attention embroils Benedict himself. As Archbishop of Munich and Freising in 1980, he approved therapy for a priest who had been accused of molesting boys in the diocese of Essen. At the time, it was not uncommon for pedophiles to be prescribed therapy. But the priest was quickly allowed to return to pastoral duties, allowing him to continue abusing minors for several more years. He was convicted of sexual abuse in 1986 - yet still he continued to work as a priest. (Ratzinger moved to Rome in 1982, long before the conviction.) The priest...
...Benedict know about the priest's swift return to pastoral work after his therapy? The archdiocese says the decision was made by Benedict's then deputy, who has taken full responsibility. But the American priest in Rome says Ratzinger, famously a micromanager, must have known of the decision. "It's probably just a matter of time," the American says, "before it comes out that he did know more than they are saying...
...commentators in Germany and Italy have suggested it may help prevent abuse. Vienna's Cardinal Christoph Schönborn has called for a thoroughgoing review of the causes of abuse, writing, "Part of it is the question of celibacy." That sort of questioning is now taking place even in Benedict's former archdiocese. "Married priests should be accepted in the Catholic Church," says Rainer Schiessler, a priest at Munich's St. Maximilian Church. (See 10 surprising facts about the world's oldest Bible...
...more immediate question is whether Benedict can resist pressure to directly address the abuse scandals. Gibson, his biographer, says that's just not in the Pope's character: "He's not the type who opens up for self-reflection, hashing out the past and past mistakes." At best, he says, there will be an oblique reference to the Europe-wide uproar in the pastoral letter to the Irish. (See people finding God on YouTube...