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Pope Benedict XV faces media attacks over abuse crisis

Faithful Catholics are rallying to the defence of Pope Benedict XVI as it has become apparent that members of the mainstream media and others are setting their sights on implicating him in the Church's sexual abuse crisis at any cost, reports Patrick B. Craine, LifeSiteNews.com.

Journalists are reportedly scouring the pope's five years as archbishop of Munich, from 1977-1982, for evidence of any kind of sexual abuse cover-up involving then-Cardinal Ratzinger.

The most overtly anti-Catholic media have already pronounced the pope guilty, however, after revelations that an accused priest residing in his diocese had been allowed to minister at a parish. On March 13th, the London Times ran the headline: "Pope knew priest was paedophile but allowed him to continue with ministry." And according to the New York Times, "Abuse Scandal in Germany Edges Closer to Pope."

Phil Lawler of Catholic World News, however, has called The Times headline "grossly misleading" and "downright irresponsible."

As Lawler has pointed out, the priest in question, Peter Hullermann, from the nearby diocese of Essen, had been sent to Munich for counselling after being accused of sexual abuse. Cardinal Ratzinger allowed the priest to stay in a rectory, but there's nothing indicating that the Cardinal was even aware that the priest was accused of pedophilia.

After the priest came he was not active; however, the vicar general of the Munich diocese, Msgr. Gerhard Gruber, later allowed him to help at a parish, apparently without consulting the cardinal. The priest was accused of pedophilia again years later, after Cardinal Ratzinger had moved to the Vatican.

The pope's "only connection with the case," writes Lawler, "was his decision to let the priest stay in a rectory in the Munich archdiocese while he was undergoing treatment there."

"There is no evidence that the Pope was aware the accused priest was an accused pedophile," Lawler continued. "He was evidently informed only that the priest had been guilty of sexual improprieties, and probably concluded that he was engaged in homosexual activities with young men."

According to Damian Thompson of The Telegraph, "The German Church handled this very badly, no doubt; but it was not Joseph Ratzinger's fault and the [Times] headline is (excuse the shouting) NOT TRUE."

Fr. Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican's press office, insisted on March 13th that Pope Benedict was "completely unconnected" with the Munich case, and slammed reporters for their attempts at implicating the Pope. "It is evident that over recent days some people have sought - with considerable persistence, in Regensburg and Munich - elements that could personally involve the Holy Father in questions of abuse," he said. "To any objective observer, it is clear that these efforts have failed."

The harshest and most outrageous attack in the media on the pope in recent days likely came from anti-theist Christopher Hitchens in a piece published by Slate, and run by Canada's National Post and the Washington Post. "The pope's entire career has the stench of evil about it," Hitchens wrote, claiming Pope Benedict is "the man chiefly responsible for the original cover-up."

The pope, says Hitchens, is "a mediocre Bavarian bureaucrat once tasked with the concealment of the foulest iniquity, whose ineptitude in that job now shows him to us as a man personally and professionally responsible for enabling a filthy wave of crime."

"Ratzinger himself may be banal, but his whole career has the stench of evil - a clinging and systematic evil that is beyond the power of exorcism to dispel," he continued. "What is needed is not medieval incantation but the application of justice - and speedily at that."

Some Catholics have organized a Facebook group in defence of the Pope entitled "Catholics Who Condemn the Media's Recent Treatment of the Pope."

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TAGS: Vatican Pope Benedict XV sexual abuse crisis media attacks Cardinal Ratzinger

[03/22/2010]

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