Pope Sued over Abuse Scandals, by Nathan Rubadou, The Raquette, September 30, 2011

Pope Sued over Abuse Scandals

By Nathan Rubadou
The Raquette
September 30, 2011

http://www.theracquette.com/news/pope-sued-over-abuse-scandals-1.2620666#.ToW2o1m3z7Y

Pope Benedict XVI

Sexual abuse cases involving priests began to emerge in the United States around 1970. At first, they were dismissed by the Vatican as a contained problem until thousands began stepping forward in Ireland, Germany and all over the world, accusing priests of sexual abuse. Since this uproar of victims and whistleblowers, the Catholic Church has paid approximately three billion dollars in settlements to victims in the United States alone, and has often allowed accused clergy members to remain within the Church for decades without notifying the public of past crimes.

On September 13, the representatives of an organization called the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) filed a formal request of more than 80 pages asking the International Criminal Court (ICC) to prosecute several high ranking church members, including Pope Benedict XVI, for crimes against humanity. Along with the request were 20,000 pages of evidence proving that Catholic Church officials have continually concealed cases of rape and abuse by their clergy.

In 2001, the Catholic Church commissioned a special division lead by Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger (now known as Pope Benedict XVI) to oversee this growing problem and review formal complaints against alleged pedophile priests to punish them.

This is not the first time the Pope has been accused of covering up cases of abuse and refusing to punish clergy accused of molestation. In 2010, he was accused of failing to take any action against a proven molester who abused 200 deaf children in the United States.

SNAP recently issued a statement on their website (www.SNAPnetwork.org) that states, "The four officials named as defendants bear… greatest responsibility for ongoing, widespread and systematic sexual violence and cover-ups by church employees. They are --Pope Benedict XVI (previous head of CDF), Cardinal William Levada (current head of the CDF)--Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone (the current Vatican Secretary of State), and --Cardinal Angelo Sodano (the Dean of the College of Cardinals and former Vatican Secretary of State)." SNAP representatives publicly stated during a protest in front of the Vatican that, "Crimes against tens of thousands of victims, most of them children, are being covered up by officials at the highest level of the Vatican. In this case, all roads really do lead to Rome." Experts say that even though the International Criminal Court will most likely reject this case and no criminal charges will be filed against the accused, the international attention that has risen from the formal complaint has seriously blemished the already ill-favored reputation of the Vatican.