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	Pope Sought in Past to Punish Errant Priests, Report Says By Rachel Donadio New York Times December 1, 2010 http://www.nytimes.com/glogin?URI=http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/02/world/europe/02pope.html&OQ=_rQ3D1&OP=4daa2799Q2FQ25xRQ23Q25Q3EPKkQ3BPPgXQ25X,Q24,Q25Q24XQ25,XQ25xPQ3B9Q3EQ25RaQ3BPQ7CRQ25,XQ7CPQ7CR ROME — Pope Benedict XVI pushed for "more rapid and simplified" procedures to punish errant priests as far back as 1988, when he was the Vatican's chief doctrinal officer, but his request was not met, according to documents released by the Vatican on Wednesday. At the height of the sexual abuse crisis last spring, Benedict's defenders said he had long argued for disciplining priests who had been found guilty of grave misconduct, while other Vatican officials advocated more lenience. The new documentation is the most comprehensive made public to date supporting those claims. It comes amid new reports in the German media questioning the pope's record as archbishop of Munich when a known pedophile priest was transferred to his diocese. The new documentation, released online Wednesday by the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, appeared to defend the pope against claims that as head of the Vatican's doctrinal office he was part of a culture of inaction and delay that failed to swiftly discipline priests who had abused minors. The article cited in particular a 1988 letter that the pope, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, sent to the Vatican calling for "a swifter and simplified" procedure for disciplining priests "found guilty of grave and scandalous conduct." In the letter, he added that such procedures "ought in some cases, for the good of the faithful, to take precedence over the request for dispensation from priestly obligations, which, by its nature, involves a 'grace' in favor of the petitioner." In reply, his interlocutor suggested that such reforms might infringe on a priest's ability to defend himself against false accusations, and the Vatican did not immediately adopt the cardinal's request. The letters appear in a lengthy article by Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta, the deputy of the Vatican's office of legislative texts, about changes to the Vatican penal code. The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said that the letters had emerged in discussions about the code, and that "it seemed useful to publish them now." Last month, the Vatican said it would soon issue new guidelines to bishops explaining how to discipline abusive priests, including by cooperating with civil authorities when required. For years, bishops had complained of widespread confusion about how to handle abuse accusations and said they faced a daunting bureaucratic and canonical process with overlapping jurisdictions in Rome.
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