Vatican deputy led cover-up in US abuse case: report

[pprimeau1976]

Vatican deputy led cover-up in US abuse case: report

AFP - The current Vatican number two, and not Pope Benedict XVI, bore the main responsibility for inaction in the scandal of a US priest accused of molesting deaf children, a German magazine said Monday.

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone – who was the deputy chief of the Church’s moral watchdog when it was headed by the current pope – played the role of a “brake” in the affair, the Die Zeit weekly said.

Here are some additional links that may be helpful:

Google Translate translation of Die Zeit article.
Facsimiles upon which the Die Zeit article is based.

 

[pprimeau1976]

Update:

Jimmy Akin summarizes and clears up this case.

 

[anode]

The long form says the same things as the short form.

Bertone was the front man in this case. He either handled it himself, which he shouldn’t have, not a case of this gravity, or he directly represented Ratzinger’s views.

Everyone knew the case was old, that it had been mishandled by 3 Milwaukee archbishops, Meyer, Cousins and Weakland, who had been archbishop for years before he wrote Ratzinger regarding the case. All the greater need for an expedient handling. Bertone counseled 'pastoral ’ measures, repentance, not saying Mass–I don’t know that Murphy was saying Mass-- but Sklba, writing in* English*, said that the deaf community was not going to accept the Vatican’s suggested ‘pastoral’ measures. The Vatican moves for a trial, Murphy writes Ratzinger begging for mercy, Ratzinger relents, Murphy dies. All about 2 years after Archbishop Weakland’s first letter to Ratzinger (not to Bertone). Ratzinger wrote two of them, by the way, as there was such a delay in Ratzinger-Bertone aswering the first one.

People in charge know that the buck stops with them. It did in Munich, it did in the Vatican and it does now. Allegations of ‘petty gossip’ will not do. A full accounting and a full apology are essential, and they are only the beginning.

 

[pnewton]

People in charge know that the buck stops with them.

With this little bon mot, I blame President Clinton, who was the President of the United States at the time. Thus as Chief Executive Officer any failure to enforce law was his fault.

This is* New York TImes Logic*.

 

[anode]

With this little bon mot, I blame President Clinton, who was the President of the United States at the time. Thus as Chief Executive Officer any failure to enforce law was his fault.

This is* New York TImes Logic*.

That little bon mot was created by Harry S. Truman, when he was president. He took full responsibility for his decisions, including the one to drop the atomic bomb. He understood the power and responsibility which comes with high office. The failures— and there were many —to enforce canon law in the Murphy case rested with three archbishops, not one, not two, but three, Meyer, Cousins, and Weakland, who passed the buck to Ratzinger, who either didn’t know about the case or didn’t want to touch that hot potato, so he passed the buck to Bertone.

As an aside, I have wondered why it took Ratzinger so long to act on the Legion, after his Congregation received the testimonies of the 8 former Legion seminarians in 1997. Today’s lead article in the NCR describes the immense monetary and other gifts that Maciel gave to the Vatican, including to Cardinal Soldano, now Dean of the College, (him of the “petty gossip”) —and the influence that the Legion had with the ailing pope, through his Polish secretary, a close friend and confidante. Ratzinger would have had to overcome all of this to act against Maciel, which he finally did in 2004.

 

[pnewton]

That little bon mot was created by Harry S. Truman, when he was president. He took full responsibility for his decisions, including the one to drop the atomic bomb…

You may not be aware, But Cardinal Ratzinger was not where “the buck stopped” if you use Truman’s analogy. He was not Pope at that time. He was not the local ordinary. He was somewhere in between Furthermore, the responsibility for enforcement of law would still be in the hands of law enforcement, but where is the blame that criminal action was not taken. By your method of assigning blame, Clinton is to blame.

Furthermore, what Truman said related to responsibility, not moral culpability. No, Ezekiel cleared that misunderstanding up 2500 years ago. HH John Paul II did take responsibility and changes were made, but that does not get the press, this gossip does. I am shocked at how those who cry for justice for on segment deny it to another. There is no due process here, just trial by rumor and assumption.

 

[pprimeau1976]

Using the “buckstopping” anology that anode used, it is unclear whether the Murphy case would have stopped with Ratzinger. Firstly, sex abuse cases were handled by the local bishop and, if appealed, by the Roman Rota. Ratzinger was totally out of the chain of responsibility when it came to sex abuse cases.

The reason that Ratzinger, Bertone, and the CDF was even involved was that there was some suspicion that these evil acts involved an abuse of the sacrament of confession. If you read Jimmy Akin’s take on this, you’ll see that Bertone wasn’t really leading a coverup, rather he was the one telling the bishops that their handling of this was “unacceptable”:

The language he uses—for anyone familiar with the ultra-polite, ultra-diplomatic way that Catholic bishops speak to and about each other—is dramatic.

First, he says that is is “unacceptable” that Murphy has the ability to go and say Mass for the Milwaukee deaf community. In the language of bishops, saying this is “unacceptable” translates into normal speech as, “Why haven’t you taken care of this already, you fools? How can you possibly allow this criminal to continue to have contact with the very community he has harmed? You don’t need a trial to stop him from doing that. Use your authority as bishops!”

Thus he says it will be “necessary” (charged term) to “impede” (charged term) Murphy, including having recourse to the infliction of “penal remedies” (charged term).

BTW, Bertone may have been even more blunt about all this in person. What we are dealing with is the exquisitely politely-drafted memo version.