Blog: Pope's Resignation May Be Tied to Sex Abuses
Your Mileage May Vary...
So. Unless you were hiding under a rock this week, you know by now that Pope Benedict XVI has announced… abruptly… that he will resign from the papacy effective February 28th of this year. Citing health reasons, Pope Benedict XVI said that he didn’t feel that his strength would allow him to continue, especially since his personal physician has barred him from any more trans-Atlantic flights. What is interesting to me is both the abruptness of, and the rarity of, such a move. Pope John Paul II, in failing health, was propped up for years before he finally succumbed, and no Pope has resigned since 1415, and only once before that, in the 13th century. Interestingly, and perhaps ominously, both prior resignations were shrouded in scandal. In my opinion, so is this one. While the Pope very well may be in failing health, it is also undeniable that he was the central player in one of the blackest and most damning scandals to haunt the Vatican since the Sale of Indulgences in the middle ages. Joseph Ratzinger, as a new Cardinal, was put in charge of the “Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,” (formerly known as “the Inquisition”). It was in this capacity that Pope John Paul II put Cardinal Ratzinger in charge of investigating charges of child rape and torture by Catholic priests. And therein lies the scandal. Instead of rooting out the evil that was being perpetrated by a sin-laden clergy, Cardinal Ratzinger, in a confidential letter to every bishop, actually made reporting incidents of abuse to be an offense punishable by excommunication. You read that right. As the London Observer reported in 2005, clergy in the Catholic Church were warned not to share any information with law enforcement authorities or the press. Abuse and child rape allegations were to be investigated “In the most secretive way… restrained by a perpetual silence.. and everyone… is to observe the strictest secret which is commonly regarded as a secret of the Holy Office… under the penalty of excommunication.” (emphasis added). Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, in a nutshell, was not only at the center of the Priest Sex Abuse scandal, he was largely responsible for the institutional-level cover-ups, and in at least one incidence, was directly responsible for shuffling a child rapist from parish to parish rather than turning him in. But we would rather not remember him for that. We would rather remember him for the great ecumenical work that he did, for his compassion, his gentle demeanor. We would rather think that, at 85, he simply would rather “Go fishin’” with the rest of his life, than to continue to carry the crushing weight of over 1.2 billion Catholics on his shoulders. But that would be unjust. And unrealistic. There are currently a number of documentaries set to be released by HBO and other outlets that chronicle Cardinal Ratzinger’s role in the Abuse Scandal cover-ups, and Pope Benedict XVI has been named as a defendant in a number of court cases that experts predict he will lose. Badly. The late columnist and author Christopher Hitchens, in writing of Ratzinger’s role in this scandal, reported that “On March 10, the chief exorcist of the Vatican, the Rev. Gabriele Amorth (who has held this demanding post for 25 years), was quoted as saying that "the Devil is at work inside the Vatican," and that "when one speaks of 'the smoke of Satan' in the holy rooms, it is all true—including these latest stories of violence and pedophilia." We would love to think of the announcement of Pope Benedict XVI’s retirement as simply the selfless and humble act of a pious man who realizes that he can no longer carry on in such a strenuous capacity. And I sincerely hope that that’s the ONLY reason why he resigned. But I have a sinking feeling in my gut that in the coming months and years, the revelations and headlines may not be as kind to His Holiness.
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