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<P>And the child sex abuse goes on and on ...</P>
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<DIV style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 28px; OVERFLOW: hidden"><A class=nolht
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<H5 style="FLOAT: right" class=details>March 28, 2010</H5></DIV>
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<H1>Catholic abuse scandal deepens</H1>
<H5 class=subhead>Pope defended but more answers sought</H5>
<DIV class="details nested grid-8"><SPAN>Mitchell Landsberg And Henry Chu<BR>Los
Angeles Times </SPAN></DIV>
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<P class=caption>In this Sept. 11, 2002, photo, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger,
left, now Pope Benedict XVI, is seen with the late Pope John Paul II during Mass
at the Vatican. </P></DIV>
<P>LOS ANGELES – First, it was an American problem. Then, an Irish problem. But
as the scandal of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests has rocked continental
Europe in recent weeks, observers inside and outside the church have begun to
recognize that it is now very much a Vatican problem, one that is creeping ever
closer to Pope Benedict XVI.</P>
<P>“The focus now is on Benedict,” the U.S.-based National Catholic Reporter
wrote Friday in a strongly worded editorial on the scandal. “What did he know?
When did he know it? How did he act once he knew?”</P>
<P>Revelations of abuse in Germany, particularly in the Munich archdiocese while
it was run by the pope, have seemingly put a lid on the argument by some in the
global Catholic Church that sexually abusive priests were an American
aberration, the result of lax morals and overblown news coverage in the
United States.</P>
<P>They also have brought the crisis to Benedict’s doorstep, with the news that,
as archbishop of Munich, he approved the transfer of an abusive priest from
another jurisdiction, and that later, as the church’s top doctrinal official, he
was in a position to know about a Wisconsin case in which the church failed to
defrock a child-molesting priest.</P>
<P>The Vatican has responded sharply to new developments, defending Benedict
against any implication that he failed to act against abusive priests.</P>
<P>A Vatican spokesman reacted swiftly Friday when the New York Times reported
that Benedict, when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, had been copied on a memo
notifying him that the Rev. Peter Hullermann was being reassigned to pastoral
work even as Hullermann was undergoing therapy for pedophilia. Hullermann was
later convicted of molesting boys.</P>
<P>The Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, dismissed the article as
“mere speculation,” and referred reporters to a statement by the Munich
archdiocese saying Ratzinger had not been aware that the priest had returned to
pastoral work. The Vatican also reacted sharply to an earlier New York Times
story, which said Ratzinger, as the church’s top doctrinal official in the
1990s, had failed to act against the Wisconsin priest, who was believed to have
abused as many as 200 deaf boys from the 1950s to the 1970s.</P>
<P>In that instance, as with the Munich case, church officials said the matter
had been handled by a subordinate, not by Ratzinger himself.</P>
<P>Benedict has accepted the resignation of one of five Irish bishops who
offered to quit over the scandal in their country, and he apologized to Irish
Catholics in his pastoral letter sent to the church in Ireland last week. But he
has yet to publicly demand any resignations or to comment on the scandals
roiling his native Germany, much to the consternation of some
Catholics there.</P>
<P>From 1981 until his election as pope in 2005, Ratzinger headed the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, where he was responsible for
upholding doctrinal purity in the church. In 1985, the first rumblings of the
sexual abuse crisis occurred in the United States when a Louisiana priest
pleaded guilty to 11 counts of molestation. As more cases came to light through
the 1990s and 2000s, the Vatican attitude was clear: Something was wrong
with America.</P>
<P>When in 1993 Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls spoke out about the
crisis in the United States, he said:</P>
<P>“One would have to ask if the real culprit is not a society that is
irresponsibly permissive, hyper-inflated with sexuality (and) capable of
creating circumstances that induce even people who have received a solid moral
formation to commit grave moral acts.”</P>
<P>No one is singling out the United States that way now. And the pope’s
statements suggest that he sees the gravity of the situation. His expressions of
deep remorse go well beyond anything said by his predecessor, John
Paul II.</P>
<P>The Rev. Thomas J. Reese, a Jesuit priest who is a senior research fellow at
Georgetown University, said of the pope:</P>
<P>“If you look at some of his early quotes, it’s clear that he didn’t quite get
it, nor did anyone else in the church at that time. But he did grow. … He
learned and came to understand the seriousness of this problem a lot faster than
a lot of other people in the Vatican, including Pope John Paul II. And he’s been
a lot better on this than John Paul II.”</P>
<P>But Benedict has yet to satisfy many European and American Catholics, who are
demanding greater transparency and stronger action against those in the
hierarchy whom they accuse of coddling abusive priests and covering up
the problem. </P></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></FONT>
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