Pope prays for those charged with protecting the young

[lemonbeam]

Pope Benedict made no mention of the abuse scandals in his Palm Sunday homily but in a message to young people said that Christ guides the faithful “towards courage that doesn’t allow us to be intimidated by the chatting of dominant opinions, and towards patience that supports others.”

Palm Sunday is traditionally dedicated to the young and the Pontiff prayed “for the young and for those charged with educating them and protecting them.”

This year’s Holy Week ceremonies have opened amid one of the most serious crises facing the Church in decades.

Questions have been raised about the Pope’s handling of cases of paedophile priests both when he was archbishop of Munich and when he headed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The Vatican itself has acknowledged that its “moral credibility” is on the line.

On Saturday Vatican spokesman, Fr Federico Lombardi, acknowledged that the way the Church responds to the abuse scandal is “crucial for its moral credibility.”

He noted that most of the cases that have come to light recently occurred decades ago.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, a top Vatican official, acknowledged in an interview published yesterday that Church authorities had on occasion maintained silence over cases of sex abuse.

But he defended the Pontiff, saying Pope Benedict “was the first one who - already as a cardinal - felt the need for new, harsher rules”.

Attacks on the Pope go “beyond any limit of justice and loyalty,” Cardinal Kasper told Corriere della Sera.

The Cardinal, however, called for a cleanup and said the Church must be more alert and brave in dealing with any sex abuse. He said a growing awareness of the problem makes the path of renewal “irreversible.”

“We need a culture of attentiveness and courage, and a housecleaning,” Cardinal Kasper said in the interview.

Until recently, Pope Benedict had been praised for his handling of sex abuse and for taking a much firmer stance than his predecessor, Pope John Paul II.

Pope Benedict disciplined the founder of the Legionaries of Christ who had been championed by the Polish pontiff and defrocked others under a new policy of zero tolerance.

But reaction changed after a case that involved German priest Fr Peter Hullermann, who was accused of abusing boys.

While Pope Benedict was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Archbishop of Munich, he was involved in a 1980 decision to transfer Fr Hullermann to Munich for therapy.

The vicar general of the archdiocese took responsibility for a subsequent decision to let the priest return to pastoral duties. Hullermann was convicted of sexual abuse in 1986.

However, the New York Times newspaper reported that Cardinal Ratzinger was copied in on a memo stating Hullermann would be returned to pastoral work within days of beginning psychiatric treatment.

The archdiocese has insisted Cardinal Ratzinger was unaware of the decision and that any other version is “mere speculation”.

Cardinal Kasper said in the interview yesterday that “especially in big dioceses, I have the impression that bishops were often not informed, unfortunately”. He said this needed to change, along with the process of selection at seminars.

Pope Benedict has only publicly spoken out about the scandal in Ireland, writing a letter to the Irish faithful last week in which he chastised Irish bishops for leadership shortcomings and errors in judgment for failing to apply church law to stop abusive priests.

Read more here: totalcatholic.com/tc/index.php?/201003281049/news/pope-prays-for-those-charged-with-protecting-the-young.html

 

[lemonbeam]

A high profile Cardinal has publicly defended Pope Benedict’s handling of cases of clerical sex abuse while calling for the Church to do some “housecleaning” and to be more alert and brave in dealing with cases of clerical sex abuse.

In an interview published today in the Italian daily newspaper Corriere della Sera Cardinal Walter Kasper says Pope Benedict was the first to recognise the need for a harsher stance against offenders.

Cardinal Kasper also underlines that the Church needs to be more vigilant on the matter of clerical abuse but says in the interview that the Church is committed to a path to deal with the issue which is “irreversible.”

However, he adds that attacks on Pope Benedict go “beyond any limit of justice and loyalty.”

The Pontiff has been under increasing pressure in recent days over attempts by the New York Times to link him directly to clerical sex-abuse scandals in Germany and the US.

A report published by the New York Times on Friday claiming that Pope Benedict as Archbishop of Munich in 1980 was aware that a convicted paedophile priest had been returned to pastoral work in his diocese has been dismissed by the Archdiocese of Munich as “pure speculation”.

The director of the Vatican press office, Fr Federico Lombardi, has also said that the headline story “contains no new information beyond that which the archdiocese has already communicated.”

He added that the Vatican stands by its statement that the Pope was unaware of the parish assignment, and “rejects any other version of events as mere speculation”.

The rebuttals by the archdiocese and the Vatican press office followed the newspaper’s allegations that documents relating to Fr Peter Hullermann’s arrival in Munich for therapy were copied to the then Archbishop, Cardinal Ratzinger, and that the future Pontiff was therefore aware of the decision.

In 1980, the priest from Essen diocese, who was known in Church documents only as “H” but who was identified by the New York Times as Peter Hullermann, was sent to Munich for counselling.

The priest’s transfer took place after discussions with Essen diocese, where he had been accused of molesting boys and was removed from work.

Cardinal Ratzinger approved an arrangement whereby Fr Hullerman was housed in a Munich rectory.

Later the vicar general of the Munich archdiocese assigned Fr Hullerman to parish work.

The vicar general, Msgr Gerhard Gruber said that he made that assignment on his own initiative, without informing Cardinal Ratzinger. He has accepted full responsibility for his “independent and incorrect decision to deploy Fr Hullermann in pastoral care”.

The Vatican has stated that the future Pontiff was unaware of Fr Hullerman’s parish assignment.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Munich said the New York Times’ report “contained no information beyond what the archdiocese has already conveyed”.

The statement added, “the archdiocese continues to presume that the then archbishop did not know about the decision to deploy Fr Hullermann in pastoral care” and dismissed “any other account of events as pure speculation”.

However, in its front-page story on Friday, the newspaper questions whether Cardinal Ratzinger was indeed ignorant of the parish assignment, noting that as Archbishop of Munich he was sent a copy of a memo announcing it.

The spokesperson for the Church in Munich said the memo referred to by the *New York Times *was “unlikely to have landed on the archbishop’s desk”.

He said the memo was a routine one, written for the files and that as many as 1,000 such memos are written every year with an official copy to the archbishop.

A strongly worded editorial in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano has denounced the “vile intent” of journalists seeking to link Pope Benedict XVI to the sex-abuse scandal in Munich and in the US.

Read more here: totalcatholic.com/tc/index.php?/201003271048/news/cardinal-kasper-defends-popes-handling-of-abuse-cases.html