By Stacy Meichtry
The Wall Street Journal
April 15, 2010
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303950104575185813892383050.html
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| Pope Benedict XVI during his general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, earlier this week. |
ROME—Pope Benedict XVI addressed the Catholic Church's recent sex-abuse crisis on Thursday for the first time, saying the Church should "do penance" in response to recent public attention to its "sins."
With the remarks, Benedict XVI broke his silence over the recent wave of sexual-abuse allegations that has spread across Europe this year. In particular, the allegations have ignited scrutiny over how the pope handled cases of sexually abusive priests in the past.
The crisis risks undercutting the pope's long-held goal of reviving the Roman Catholic Church in a region where its membership has long been in decline.
In the U.S., the latest allegations have revived scrutiny over how the Vatican handled cases decades ago. Also on Thursday, a lawyer representing many victims of abuse, disclosed documentation showing that an Indian priest had remained in active ministry in Italy after having pleaded no contest in 2007 to charges of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl in Bonifay, Fla.
The pope spoke during a Mass in the Pauline Chapel of the papal palace. Excerpts of his homily were broadcast over Vatican radio on Thursday and reported by the Vatican's official newspaper L'Osservatore Romano.
"I must say that we Christians, even lately, have often avoided the word 'penance,' which seemed too tough," he said. "Now, under the attacks of the world that speak of our sins, we see that doing penance is grace, and we see how penance is necessary," he added in an apparent reference to the sex-abuse crisis.
The excerpts of the pope's homily didn't specifically mention sex-abuse by priests. However, the comments' meaning was clear, coming in the wake of hundreds of abuse allegations that have emerged across Europe this year, including in his native Germany. Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said the pope's comments were open to interpretation.
Benedict XVI has come under particular scrutiny for his handling of abusive priests when he was Archbishop of Munich-Freising in the late 1970 and early 1980s, and subsequently as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a Vatican office that at the time reviewed some cases of sexual abuse. In early March, the Archdiocese of Munich-Freising disclosed one case in which a priest known to church officials as a sex abuser had been transferred to the archdiocese with the future pope's approval.
Like past popes, Benedict XVI has been reluctant to engage his critics in a public war of words. During Holy Week earlier this month, the pope didn't mention the sex-abuse crisis, leaving his lieutenants in the Vatican to do the talking.
Instead, the Vatican has defended Benedict XVI for over a month now. Its officials have described the pope as the target of a widespread media campaign. On Good Friday, the pope's preacher likened media scrutiny of the pope to the persecution of Jews, prompting a Vatican spokesman to disassociate the Holy See from the comments.
In his homily on Thursday, the pope quoted St. Peter on the "need to obey God instead of men," according to the excerpts of his homily. Dictatorships such as Nazism, Benedict XVI said, "cannot accept a God above ideological power."
"Thank God we don't live under dictatorships today, but there exist subtle forms of dictatorships...a conformity, in which it's obligatory to think like everyone else, to act like everyone."
Benedict XVI said "the subtle aggression against the church—or even less subtle—shows how this conformity can really be a true dictatorship."
The Vatican is preparing to take measures aimed at curbing criticism of the pope by showing his willingness to tackle sexual abuse, according to a senior Vatican official. "The Holy See must make some very precise gestures," the official said. "We will do something."
That could happen as early as Saturday, when the pope will make a two-day visit to Malta, where victims of alleged abuse have called for a meeting with the pontiff. Father Lombardi told a news conference on Tuesday that, while the pope remains open to meetings with sexual-abuse victims, he could "neither announce, nor exclude" a meeting in the near future.
But as the Vatican steps up damage-control operations, new details of sexual abuse are emerging.
In the case of the Indian priest in the U.S., Jeff Anderson, a lawyer who represents many victims of abuse, disclosed documentation showing that the priest, Father Vijay Vhaskr Godugunuru, had been required to return to India and not supervise minors for a year in exchange for his plea of no contest in 2007. He was also barred from returning to the U.S.
But shortly after his return to India, Mr. Godugunuru was transferred to the Diocese of Montepulciano in Italy. There, he works at the parish of San Lorenzo celebrating Mass with no restrictions on his ministry, said Rev. Fabrizio Ilari, his superior. Father Ilari said he hadn't received any complaints about the priest.
Federico Romani, a spokesman for the Diocese of Montepulciano declined a request to speak to Father Godugunuru. Vatican spokesman Father Lombardi declined to comment on the matter.
"It was our expectation that this priest would have been defrocked," said Mr. Anderson on Thursday. "We were all deceived."
Even before Thursday, Benedict XVI had addressed sexual abuse—but only in nations where abuse emerged more than a decade ago. In mid-March, he issued a letter of apology to Ireland's Catholics over the thousands of documented cases of abuse by priests that damaged the reputation of the Irish Church, a traditional stronghold of European Catholicism.
That letter, however, didn't address the issue of abusive priests in other nations or make reference to the public questions the pope has faced for his handling of abusive priests.
Thursday's Mass, which was closed to the public, was attended by members of the Vatican's Bible commission including Cardinal William J. Levada, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican office in charge of defrocking sexually abusive priests.
L'Osservatore Romano described the homily as "off the cuff." But parts of it echoed a landmark address the then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger gave to cardinals in 2005, moments before the cardinals entered a Vatican conclave that elected him pope.
In that address, Cardinal Ratzinger warned cardinals of a rising "dictatorship of relativism" that "does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one's own ego and one's own desires." The passage foreshadowed what has become a defining theme of Benedict XVI's papacy: The need to revive Church traditions so that it can better withstand the influence of modern culture.
The pope turns 83 years old on Friday and marks the fifth anniversary of his papacy on Monday.
—Margherita Stancati contributed to this article.
Write to Stacy Meichtry at stacy.meichtry@wsj.com and Ashby Jones at ashby.jones@wsj.com
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