The clerical sex abuse scandal escalated and then erupted under Pope John Paul II during the years when Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger—who would later become Pope Benedict XVI—headed the Vatican’s doctrinal office, which dealt with the cases of priests who were accused of molesting children.
Presented with files, Cardinal Ratzinger sometimes initiated disciplinary action even after accused priests were removed from office. But other times, the file shows, he sided with the accused priests and did not listen to the victims or their warnings that an abuser could rape more children.
When Cardinal Ratzinger became pope, scandal erupted throughout the world church.
During his time as pope, his efforts to rid the church of what he called “filth” went beyond those of John Paul II, but he was reluctant to hold bishops accountable for mixing up abusive priests from assignment to assignment, angering survivors and lawyers.
Benedict himself was swept up in the scandal following the release of a January 2022 report commissioned by the Roman Catholic Church in Munich to examine the archdiocese’s dealings with sexual abuse from 1945 to 2019.
The report alleged that Benedict mishandled cases of child sexual abuse four decades earlier when he was archbishop in Germany. It also accused him of misleading investigators in his written answers.
Two weeks after the report was released, Benedict acknowledged that “abuses and mistakes” had been made. He asked for forgiveness but denied any wrongdoing.
Survivors and victim groups had mixed feelings about his legacy.
“Ratzinger was less communicative than Francis, but he was moving” in the right direction when it came to confronting the church abuse scandal, the first pope to actually do so, said Francesco Zanardi, the founder of Rete l’Abuso, the largest victim group in Italy. That said, “the real challenge is changing the culture of individual bishops, and that can be huge.”
Anne Barrett Doyle, a co-director of BishopAccountability.org, a victim advocacy and research group, said in a statement that Benedict “would be remembered primarily for his failure to accomplish what his job should have been: to repair the incalculable damage that has been done”. to the hundreds of thousands of children who have been sexually abused by Catholic priests.”
When he stepped down, Benedict left “hundreds of guilty bishops in power and a culture of secrecy intact,” she said.
“Instead of remedies, he gave us words,” said Ms Barrett Doyle. “His failure to make real changes in the way the Church treats sexually abusive priests will be his important and shameful legacy.”
The network of survivors of those abused by priests, known as SNAP, was harsh in its assessment of Benedict’s handling of church abuse.
“In our view, the death of Pope Benedict XVI is a reminder that Benedict, like John Paul II, was more concerned with the church’s deteriorating image and financial flow to the hierarchy than he was with the concept of sincere apology followed by sincere make amends to the victims. of abuse,” SNAP said in a statement Saturday.
“It is time,” the group said, “for the Vatican to refocus on change: telling the truth about known abusive clerics, protecting children and adults, and delivering justice to those who have been hurt.”
“Honoring Pope Benedict XVI now is not only wrong. It’s embarrassing,” SNAP said.