THE CATHOLIC CHURCH will be reaping the whirlwind that was sown by the papacies of John Paul II and Benedict XVI for a long time to come. Both had a reactionary, hierarchy-centered view of the Catholic Church, Benedict XVI infamously hoped for a radically smaller Catholic Church in which those who disagreed with him would leave and leave what I'm sure he saw as "his" Church in what he regraded as a purer form than the large, messy thing he was chosen to lead by his equally reactionary predecessor. I somehow doubt he sees his present predicament, if he's even been told about it, as the Holy Spirit telling him he was barking up the wrong tree.
Now a professional and independent legal analysis of his time as Cardinal Ratzinger shows that in at least four cases of priestly sexual abuse, he was guilty of serious, likely criminal misconduct.
The Jan. 20 report was conducted by an independent law firm at the request of the German archdiocese. Its authors identified nearly 500 victims of abuse in the archdiocese over seven decades, and implicated Benedict and two living Catholic cardinals for what it deemed "misconduct" in handling abuse cases.
"In a total of four cases, we came to the conclusion that the then-archbishop, Cardinal Ratzinger, can be accused of misconduct," said one of the reports' authors, Martin Pusch.
At a press conference, investigators said that they believe the actual number of cases of abuse to be far higher than what is included in the report's findings.
"Far too often, despite clear knowledge of acts of abuse, priests continued to be employed in pastoral care," the investigators said.
German Jesuit Fr. Hans Zollner, one of the Vatican's point persons for clergy abuse, told NCR he is sure that abuse survivors again are "devastated" and "angry" to once more hear the church's failures recounted.
The numbers of victims are "shocking and cruel," said Zollner, who added that while it is necessary to produce such reports to account for past failings, many survivors relive their pain each time a new report is published.
"Numbers are always people and behind those numbers are people whose lives have been destroyed. And the clear message is that the church must wake up and take responsibility," said Zollner, who is a member of Pope Francis' clergy abuse commission.
This is the same Cardinal Ratzinger who played a role in the response to the developing scandal when pedophile priestly abuse was coming to the head, when it fully broke open under JPII in the Boston Archdioceses then led by Bernard Law, who was allowed to flee certain legal action to compel him to provide evidence in the certain to come legal cases he was responsible for, his elevation to an honored position within the Vatican, etc. etc. etc. He did, I will admit, try to somewhat chart a more responsible course after JPII's death, JPII was truly the worst Pope of my lifetime which extends back to the time of Pius XII. But Benedict, for all of his academic brilliance as an academic theologian, was never good at any kind of administrative job I'm aware of.
It is almost certain that the glacial pace of Vatican movement will assure that Benedict XVI will be allowed to die rather than any action farther than this being taken. He is nearly 95 and, since his use by his fellow reactionaries to attack Francis last year, even more isolated than he had been.
It is a scandal that he is still allowed to style himself "Pope emeritus," something that survivors said he should be stripped of. And it is certainly a bad idea for his long-time secretary, the conniving Bishop Georg Ganswein to have control over access to him and what comes from him. Though at this point removing him is probably not going to be done for what will be considered humane reasons. Ganswein is reportedly saying that they will take time to go over the 1,000 page report, no doubt he's hoping that his claim to fame will also die before that review is done. I don't know if his association with Ratzinger goes back that far, I'd very much like to know if it does.
I love Pope Francis but I'm well and truly fed up with this stuff.
So there is another article I read this week, a Woman Religious asking why Women Religious in the Catholic Church are still tolerating the same patriarchy controlling their activities. It's a good question. I have enormous faith in the good intentions of Pope Francis and in his judgement but he has what might be an impossible task, to hold together the Catholic Church as it is now, a church with an enormous number of members, MOST OF WHOM ARE NOT WHITE AMERICANS FROM NORTH AMERICA.
He has to contend with the legacy of reactionaries in the hierarchy appointed by his predecessors, a number of well financed billionaire back schismatic factions who can cause something any Pope hopes won't happen on his watch, a serious schism. I think that's probably unavoidable because if it's not going to come from the billionaire financed astro-turf "trads" it's going to come from those who actually do the work of the Church such as women religious. And they have a large number of lay Catholics with them in the same basket.
If there were some effective means of Roman Catholic Women Religious to mount an independent supporting structure independent of the control of males, I'd certainly donate to that, just as I donate to the Roman Catholic Women Priests. I think an independent, entirely Woman managed, Woman determined order of Woman religious would be welcomed by even more People. Sisters have always been more popular than bishops and, as JFK pointed out, there are more of them (and, as was his point, they tend to vote Democratic even as the bishops tend more Republican).
And a slight ray of light, here's an article about the current state of affairs for LGBTQ Catholics and some of their supporters. I have to say that Sr. Jeaninne Gramick is a lot more charitable to the man who persecuted her, Joseph Ratzinger, than I'm feeling. Maybe that's the difference between having lived a life dedicated to the Gospel of Jesus than the kind of life I've led. I am not capable of that level of forgiveness as of now.
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