AS THE Catholic Church prepares for Easter celebrations, senior church figures closely linked to Pope Benedict XVI have this week spoken out in defence of him.
In particular, both Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn and Italian Cardinal Camillo Ruini have praised his handling, past and present, of the clerical sex abuse crisis.
As the church has been rocked in recent months by an unprecedented series of child abuse allegations in Ireland, The Netherlands, Italy and in the pope’s native Germany, Pope Benedict himself has come in for repeated criticism, both for his overall handling of the issue and for his handling of a paedophile priest during his five-year stint as archbishop of Munich (1977-1982).
Cardinal Schoenborn this week defended the pope, pointing out that in an infamous case involving his predecessor as archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Hans Groer, it was the then Cardinal Ratzinger who wanted to take a hard line. In 1995, the Austrian church was stunned by allegations that Cardinal Groer had molested youths at a monastery in the 1970s.
Three years later, Cardinal Groer relinquished all religious duties and sought exile in Germany. At the time, many Austrian Catholics were furious with the church for having taken three years to act on the allegations against Groer. Cardinal Schoenborn said this week that one of the Vatican figures who had most wanted to investigate Cardinal Groer was Cardinal Ratzinger, then Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
The present pope, he said, had been blocked by other unnamed Vatican officials, who persuaded Pope John Paul II that the allegations were false and that an investigation would only generate negative publicity for the church: “To accuse him of being someone who covers things up – having known the pope for many years – I can say that is certainly not true,” said Cardinal Shoenborn, believed to have been one of the key electors of Pope Benedict at the 2005 conclave.
In Italy, Cardinal Ruini, for many years president of the Italian Bishops Conference (CEI), defended the pope’s record. Cardinal Ruini will this year offer the “meditations” during the Via Crucis ceremony presided over by Pope Benedict at the Coliseum on Good Friday.
At Easter 2005, just days before the death of John Paul II, Cardinal Ratzinger offered the Via Crucis meditations, famously referring to the sex abuse crisis when he spoke of “filth” in the church itself.
Asked in an interview with Vatican daily, L’Osservatore Romano, whether his meditations would cover the abuse crisis, Cardinal Ruini said: “If we are talking about the very grave question of the abuse of minors, then Pope Benedict has already given the correct, indeed I would say complete, explanation in his recent pastoral letter to Irish Catholics.”
His remarks came on the same day the CEI issued a statement praising the pope’s “firm and enlightened” attitude in dealing with the church’s paedophile crisis, saying: “Without leaving any areas of doubt . . . the pope invites the church to find out the truth of the facts and, if justified, to enact the necessary sanctions.”
The statements from the CEI and the cardinals are in line with statements last month from the secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, and from the Vatican senior spokesman, Fr Federico Lombardi. Both claimed the pope is the victim of a media witchhunt, inspired by aggressive forces with an anti-clerical agenda.
STUDENTS BACK PONTIFF: REPORTERS BRANDED 'SOWERS OF MISTRUST': CONSERVATIVE CATHOLIC university students rushed to Pope Benedict's defence yesterday, attacking journalists writing about the sexual abuse of children by priests as "sowers of mistrust".
Some 4,000 students from around the world, in Rome for a convention, handed the pope a letter of support at his weekly audience at St Peter's Square.
The letter the Opus Dei students handed Benedict read: "We notice that many have taken advantage of some episodes that are painful for the church and the pope to spread doubts and suspicion. To these sowers of mistrust we wish to say . . . we do not accept their ideology . . . we demand . . . respect for our faith and the recognition of the right that we have to live as Christians in a plural society." – (Reuters)