Having lived through the sexual revolution of the decade of the 1960’s and following, most of what the Pope Emeritus writes seems to be common sense and an acknowledgement of the history of those decades.
Oh good grief. That’s just passing the buck and looking for excuses. The underlying human lusts and misconducts have always been there, just read St. Paul’s letter to the Romans for example. Perhaps prior to the 60s the thin veneer that was making society look homogenous and pure was still in place; that has since come off no doubt, and revealed the rot underneath that has existed since the Fall.
But don’t make the mistake of assuming that it was always sweet and pure before then. Many of these abuse cases happened in the 50s. That’s
prior to Vatican II and the sexual revolution. The parish priest in my mother’s parish was known to be a molester in the '40s for heaven’s sake, and parents knew well enough back then to keep their kids from being alone with him. Of course nothing happened, He was untouchable because he was a
priest.
My mother and her generation also had many horror stories of some very wicked sisters that taught them in boarding school (but also some very good ones).
Read up on the Residential Schools (for aboriginals) in Canada, and the horrible abuses they suffered… starting in the 19th Century.
With all due respect to the Holy Father Emeritus, he has his head buried deeply in the sand on this issue.
In fact I’m terribly disappointed with the entire Church hierarchy on the crisis. It has shaken my faith to the very core, especially in the Church’s absolutist view of a sexuality that her own princes impose on the riff-raff in the pews without holding themselves to the same standards (O’Brien, McCarrick, Pell)
