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The `Operation Cleanup' within the Church that began with Ratzinger

16/04/2022

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Pablo Blanco |

Professor at School of Theology

On 16 April, Benedict XVI's birthday, UNAV professor Blanco Sarto analyses the challenges the pontiff has had to face.

Today, at 95 years of age, Benedict XVI is one of the longest-lived popes in history. His Withdrawal more than nine years ago was a revolutionary act by someone who was labelled a conservative. True to a persistent diary, the accusations of an expert report attempting to obscure the emeritus pope's record on sexual abuse within the Church show that he still has enemies, perhaps because he has many friends too. However, such accusations are inconsistent with his thinking that promotes the necessary purification in the Church. In fact, with John Paul II and Ratzinger began the 'Operation Clean Sweep' in the Church with regard to child abuse, which now continues with Francis' decision.

Michael Hesemann pointed out that, during the four and a half years that Joseph Ratzinger was Archbishop of Freising and Munich, there were no cases of abuse. Yes, he or his collaborators had the slip of the tongue - after forty years - when he claimed that he had not attended the meeting on 15 January 1980. There he rectified it and on the conference proceedings it can be seen how, with incomplete information (nobody told him about the previous abuses committed by that priest), Archbishop Ratzinger took him into the diocese of Munich to receive psychotherapy for alcoholic problems. Then, without knowledge or Ratzinger's permission, he was sent to a parish with a position . On 24 January 2022, the Pope emeritus sent a correction via Archbishop Gänswein. This information is also corroborated in the authoritative biography of Pope Benedict XVI written by Peter Seewald in 2010.

When Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger took over position as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1982, he included the 1922 Instruction Crimen sollicitationis in the reformed Code of Canon Law of 1983. That is, the crimes of pederasty and sexual abuse of minors by the clergy. In the seventies of the last century, the usual way of proceeding was the concealment of these criminal situations, promoting only displacements of priests. Ratzinger saw this as a great injustice to the victims, who were marked for life. It was not until the 1990s that dioceses followed Ratzinger's instruction, since after the Second Vatican Council the principle was that the bishop should "cure and not punish".

In 2001, the Boston Globe newspaper research broke the news about sexual abuse committed by priests in the United States. Faced with this scandal, the American bishops asked Ratzinger whether they should punish paedophile priests internally or involve the civil justice system. As Prefect of the CDF, Ratzinger began the process with John Paul II to direct these cases from Rome. He established that priests who had committed sexual abuse should first be tried by a civil court, according to the laws of each country, and not only by an ecclesiastical court or after a canonical process. And that such persons should not be allowed to serve as priests.

A path of pain

Ratzinger dedicated Fridays, the day of sorrows, which for him meant tremendous suffering, to studying these very sad cases. In fact, when Benedict XVI became Pope in 2005, the first thing he did was to clarify what was happening with the Legionary Marcial Maciel. During Benedict XVI's pontificate, 400 priests ceased to be priests for these reasons. He was also the first pope to meet with victims of clerical sexual abuse . The most striking meeting was in the United States in 2008, when the pope wept with grief and emotion at these circumstances. Pope Benedict XVI's response to a journalist during his trip to Portugal in 2011, in the year dedicated to the priesthood, about an alleged conspiracy against the Church, was clear and reflects his thinking. "The greatest persecution of the Church does not come from external enemies, but is born of sin in the Church. Therefore, it has a profound need to return to penance, to accept purification, to learn, on the one hand, forgiveness, but also the need for justice. Forgiveness is no substitute for justice.

For Joseph Ratzinger, the topic of justice was central. He realised the magnitude of the problem and decided to act, taking the risk he had to take in the eyes of public opinion. He has staked his prestige and his pontificate on entering into these issues, as seems evident. Perhaps Vatileaks has to do with the actions he took in this area. This was the latest act in a smear campaign staff against him and his thinking. He is now 95 years old under the shadow of an accusation that does not seem fair. Some still resent Ratzinger's formula of humility, forgiveness and purification. A witch-hunt against Pope Benedict XVI? Why? Time and history will tell. As a Nobel laureate award pointed out: The answer is blowing in the wind.