What Pope Benedict Knew About Abuse in the Catholic Church

[trotsky]

http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/what-pope-benedict-knew-about-abuse-in-the-catholic-church

The election of Pope Francis, in 2013, had the effect, among other things, of displacing the painful story of priestly sexual abuse that had dominated public awareness of the Church during much of the eight-year papacy of his predecessor. The sense that the Church, both during the last years of Benedict and under Francis, had begun to deal more forcefully with the issue created a desire in many, inside and outside the Church, to move on. But recent events suggest that we take another careful look at this chapter of Church history before turning the page.

During the past week, a German lawyer charged with investigating the abuse of minors in a famous Catholic boys’ choir in Bavaria revealed that two hundred and thirty-one children had been victimized over a period of decades. The attorney, Ulrich Weber, who was commissioned by the Diocese of Regensburg to conduct the inquiry, said that there were fifty credible cases of sexual abuse, along with a larger number of cases of other forms of physical abuse, from beatings to food deprivation.

The news received widespread attention not only because of its disturbing content but because the director of the Regensburg boys’ choir from 1964 to 1994 was Georg Ratzinger, the older brother of Joseph Ratzinger, who became Benedict XVI. Joseph Ratzinger was the Archbishop of Munich from 1977 until 1981, when he went to head up the powerful Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which establishes theological orthodoxy and was also one of the branches of the Church that dealt with priestly sexual abuse.

The developments in Germany raised the question of what the two Ratzinger brothers knew about the abuse in the Regensburg choir. Most of the sexual abuse took place, apparently, at a boarding school for elementary-grade students connected to the choir. The chief culprit, according to Weber, was Johann Meier, the boarding school’s director from 1953 until 1992. The composer Franz Wittenbrink, a graduate of the school, told Der Spiegel magazine, in 2010, when the abuse scandal became public, that there was “a system of sadistic punishments connected to sexual pleasure.”

Some more clues as to why Ratzi "retired"?

[underpants]

1. Damn, and here I thought everything would work out great with a Nazi Pope

[Lordquinton]

2. It's amazing that there is more than just him signing the orders to hide the abuse in the church

He did his job, followed up JP and made sure the next guy would shine.

Let me know when he's in a jail cell, then we can talk about the RCC being progressive.

[onager]

3. It's a shame to see this post drop...

So here's a BUMP.

And this post has been up 24 hours without somebody defending the PR Pope? Amazing. I'm sure they're out doing extensive research in the archives to refute this story...

[trotsky]

4. Oh I'm sure there's a Dawkins tweet that's much more important to discuss...

than the organized coverup of the sexual mistreatment and rape of children.

[cleanhippie]

5. Really? A shame? The Laity have been ignoring this issue for decades...

and still are, as evidenced by the lack of comments from said laity.

Maybe they are praying this will just go away?

[rug]

6. It's more likely a decision not to feed trolling, as the other two replies to your post demonstrate.