On instant amnesia and revisionism
on the part of some media
with regard to Benedict XVI and
their sycophancy of Pope Francis
Obviously, no one could possibly think that after all Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI has done to combat the scourge of sex offender priests and protect children and minors from these predators, anyone who succeeded him as Pope would even think
not to carry on his work in this respect.
All of the groundwork has been laid - it now remains for the bishops of the world to do their part, since they remain the primary implementors of everything the CDF has promulgated in this respect since 2001 when it was given the jurisdiction to deal with the scourge.
Since he became Pope, Francis has expressed himself on two occasions about this issue.
The first came in a note from the CDF on April 5 after his first meeting with CDF Prefect Mons. Gerhard Mueller. Here is the entire note:
The Holy Father this morning received in audience H.E. Mons. Gerhard Mueller, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. During the meeting which dealt with the various areas of competence of the dicastery, the Holy Father recommended particularly that the Congregation, continuing the line laid down by Benedict XVI, act decisively on cases of sexual abuse, promoting above all measures for protecting minors, help to those who have in the past suffered from such violations, the necessary proceedings against those who are culpable, the commitment of the bishops' conferences in the formulation and implementation of directives necessary in this field which is so important for the witness of the Church and her credibility. The Holy Father gave assurances that the victims of sexual abuse are particularly present in his attention and in his prayers.
His second reference came during his remarks preceding the Regina caeli on Sunday, May 5, as the fifth in a series of six pastoral announcements, ranging from a tribute to Mary and greetings for the Orthodox Easter, and a greeting to the gathered confraternities and to those who suffer from pulmonary hypertension:
A special greeting goes today to the “METER” Association on the day for children who are victims of violence. And this gives me the opportunity to turn my thoughts to those who have suffered and are suffering because of abuse. I would like to assure them that they are present in my prayers, but I would also say emphatically that we must all commit ourselves with clarity and courage to every human person, especially children, who are among the most vulnerable, that they might always be defended and protected.
But do these two statements - as clear and unequivocal as they are - merit the opening paragraph of a news item jointly bylined by La Repubblica's two senior Vaticanistas, Marco Ansaldo and Paolo Rodari in the May 6, 2013, issue of the newspaper?
Pope Francis has raised the walls of the Church against pedophilia in the clergy. Benedict XVI already did this in 2010 at the height of the controversies over the accusations of sexual abuses by priests. [EXCUSE ME! One would think that Benedict XVI had acted only in 2010 'at the height of controversy' and had not done anything before that! Or that 2010 marked any increase, much less 'peak', in the incidence of such abuses - but it was the year that reports on abuses committed in previous decades made the news in Ireland, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, and the most powerful media institutions then capitalized on the fresh uproar to try and provoke Benedict XVI to resign by seeking to link him - with monumental failure - directly and personally to cover-ups of a few selected abuse cases in the United States and one in Germany (which involved a priest who came to Munich in the last year that Joseph Ratzinger was Archbishop there, and who more than 10 years later, long after Ratzinger had gone to Rome as CDF Prefect, committed abuses that earned him a jail sentence.]
Francis did so Sunday, with more conviction and welcomed with even greater approval because he had never been touched by any criticism [regarding sexual abuses] as his predecessor was. And the applause he obtained seem to show he is right... Francis is convinced that a large part of the credibility of the Church rests on the question of pedophilia.
All that on the basis of the two sentences delivered at the Regina caeli, which
in the fawning eyes of Ansaldo and Rodari, would seem to far outweigh anything Benedict XVI had ever done. As if Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI had never acted on the premise, among other things, that the Church was to be judged on what she does about this scourge. As if it had not been Joseph Ratzinger who first openly spoke about the 'filth' in the Church brought on by those who profess themselves to be minister of Christ. As if, as early as 1988, Cardinal Ratzinger had not already requested that the Vatican lay down more efficient procedures for dealing with criminal accusations made against priests! Oh no, Benedict XVI only reacted in 2010 because of the height of controversy', judging by what Ansaldo-Rodari affirm.
This is sickening sycophancy that Pope Francis certainly does not need, and a totally unmerited and deliberate diminution of Benedict XVI's universally-ackowledged work in this field.
BTW, did they bother to check whether the Argentine bishops' conference has submitted its proposed national guidelines to the CDF? Papa Bergoglio is so punctilious that the Argentine bishops must have done so, but still, it would be good to have it confirmed and published, since the CDF has said as late as last October, more than a year since the bishops' conferences were asked to do so, that more than half had yet to comply.
Of course, the rest of the Ansaldo-Rodari story does not contain anything more concrete, other than reiterating stories from Scotland that 'the Vatican' had ordered Cardinal Keith O'Brien - who resigned as Archbishop of Edinburgh last March after first denying and then admitting to improper homosexual advances made to other priest(s) more than 30 years ago = to leave the United Kingdom and not retire to a convent he had chosen in Scotland.
The story has not been confirmed by the Vatican - and in any case,
why would O'Brien need to leave Scotland? It makes no sense at all. 'The Vatican' under Pope Francis has not asked Cardinal Mahony of Los Angeles - about whose sickening cover-up for offending priests we are daily learning new details - to leave the USA. In any case, where then would these disgraced cardinals go? To some sort of Vatican Guantanamo? Surely, not to become arch-priest of some basilica in Rome, not again!
Ansaldo-Rodari also cite the case of the Archbishop of San Juan, Puerto Rico, who has refused to step down despite repeated calls from the Vatican Congregation for Bishops to do so because he was found to have covered up for sex-offender priests. Benedict XVI in eight years caused some 80 bishops to resign/retire for similar offenses. How will Pope Francis deal with the defiant bishop? Ansaldo-Rodari don't ask the question at all, nor call on him to do something 'decisive'. Imagine what they would be writing if such a situation had occurred under Benedict XVI?
Benedict XVI's crucifixion by the media continues gleefully and gloatingly.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 07/05/2013 00:00]