By Richard Owen
The Times
March 17, 2010
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article7065581.ece
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| Pope Benedict with Cardinal Brady, who is embroiled in the Irish clerical sex abuse scandal |
Pope Benedict XVI said today that he was about to sign his long-awaited letter to bishops in Ireland about the sex abuse crisis, which he hoped would help the process of "repentance, healing and renewal".
Addressing pilgrims in St Peter's Square on St Patrick's Day during his weekly general audience, the Pope said he would sign the pastoral letter on Friday and would send it to the faithful soon.
He acknowledged that the Irish Church had been severely shaken as a result of the crisis, and said he was deeply concerned.
"I ask all of you to read it [the letter] for yourselves, with an open heart and in a spirit of faith," the Pope said.
Last month he summoned Ireland's bishops to Rome for talks on the crisis, calling sexual abuse of minors a "grave sin" and a "heinous crime".
The Pope, 82, made no mention of clerical abuse scandals rocking the church elsewhere in Europe, including his native Germany.
Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, today demanded clarity about the "despicable crime" of sexual abuse in a speech to parliament, while noting that it was a problem for socety as a whole and not just the Church.
"There is only one way for society to come clean and that is truth and clarity about everything that has happened," Mrs Merkel said.
"Even if the first cases we’ve heard about are from the Catholic Church, it doesn’t make any sense to limit this to one group."
She welcomed a meeting planned for next month involving Catholic and Protestant leaders, teachers and victims on how to protect children from abuse. She said that abuse victims were "scarred for life".
There was no "complete reparation" for this, but the ten-year statute of limitations for bringing charges against abusers should be reviewed.
Last week Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, head of the German Catholic bishops, apologised to victims of child abuse after meeting the Pope in Rome.
The scandal in Germany has drawn in Pope Benedict himself, whose older brother, Monsignor Georg Ratzinger, ran a prestigious choir linked to cases of abuse for 30 years.
Monsignor Ratzinger has admitted slapping boys in the Regensburg choir but said he knew nothing about sex abuse allegations.
This week Father Peter Hullermann, 62, a priest given "therapy" in the Munich archdiocese for sex offences 30 years ago when Pope Benedict XVI was the local archbishop, was suspended for violating a condition that he have no further contact with minors. His superior, Monsignor Josef Obermaier, has resigned.
Benedict is also under fire for a 2001 church directive he issued while head of doctrine at the Vatican, instructing bishops to keep abuse cases confidential.
Last weekend the Vatican denounced "aggressive attempts" to draw Pope Benedict into the spreading scandal in his German homeland, saying suggestions of a papal cover up were "false and defamatory". However some German Catholic groups have hit out at what they say is the Pope's silence.
The Church faces claims by about 300 Germans that priests sexually or physically abused them in Church-run boarding schools and other institutions.
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State and the Pope's deputy, said today in L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, that the spiralling clerical sex abuse scandal was being used to undermine the Church.
He said that the Church still enjoyed the great trust of the faithful but some people were seeking to undermine that trust. However, the Church had "special help from on high".
Giovanni Maria Vian, the editor of L'Osservatore Romano, said: "Just as the Church is tackling this filth like no other institution, following the line the Holy Father has always wanted, some people are trying to tar everyone with the same brush and make out the Church is a club of paedophiles".
The scandal this week spread to Switzerland after Monsignor Martin Werlen, abbot of the Benedictine Abbey of Einsiedeln, said the Swiss Catholic Church was investigating claims by 60 people that they were victims of abuse by priests. This follows similar disclosures in Ireland, Germany, Austria, Poland and Holland.
Abbot Werlen said that the claims should be investigated by an independent organisation.
There are also growing allegations of clerical abuse in Italy, including Bolzano – where the diocese has announced a dedicated e-mail address for the submission of abuse claims – Bressanone, Florence, Ferrara, and Rome.
Monsignor Charles Scicluna, the Vatican's "chief prosecutor" of sex abuse offenders, said the situation in Italy had not reached "dramatic proportions", adding that he was worried by a widespread culture of silence.
Bishop Giuseppe Versaldi, professor of canon law and psychology at the pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, this week denied that the Pope was a remote, professorial figure unable to handle the crisis. The Pope's track record showed he was a "vigilant shepherd of his flock".
Bishop Versaldi recalled that Benedict had denounced "filth" inside the Church on Good Friday in 2005, shortly before his election as Pope. The bishop rejected any link between paedophilia and priestly celibacy, saying that abuse of minors was more prevalent among married and lay people than celibate clerics.
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