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Pope Benedict Downplays Child Rape in his Homily

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03/31/2010

Pope Benedict this Palm Sunday dismissed the “petty gossip” of the allegations during his homily. The recent scandal rocking the Catholic Church involves a Wisconsin Priest who raped over 200 deaf boys and had his case dismissed by Pope Benedict (then Cardinal Ratzinger).  Could the Pope possibly minimize the grotesque nature of child rape even more? The Church has been more concerned with covering it’s own backside than it is with solving the widespread problem of child rape in the priesthood.  It is much more concerned with it’s public image than it is concerned with admitting faults and making amends with the victims.

Christopher Hitchens discusses this topic on Bill Maher’s March 26th 2010 HBO show. Video Transcript excerpt:

“It’s funny because in this society… Even in prisons, there is a hierarchy of crimes.  The child molesters are the ones who even hardened criminals shun, or actually kill.” – Maher

“This is the one crime no one can think about without vomiting, that the once great, moral church wants wiggle room for” -Hitchens

  • Joe Garrison

    Actually Hitchens is off-base here, as is your previous post. Facts are always good to be aware of.

    This scumbag Fr. Murphy committed the acts in the 60′s and 70′s. Hitchens and you imply that appeals were made to Ratzinger and the Vatican who did nothing at that time. In reality, the Milwaukee Archdiocese didn’t report this for 20 YEARS!!!!! Milwaukee appealed for Murphy to be investigated in1996. Ratzinger’s organization started the trial, but due the fact that Murphy, terminally ill would have died before its conclusion chose not to proceed, but relieve him from his duties. I’m not sure this was the best decision but is far from what is being described on this blog and in the media. Murphy indeed died 4 months after it was reported to the Vatican.

    These cases were reported to the Milwaukee police in the 70′s. Why did they not pursue this? I don’t know, but neither the NY Times nor Hitchens wants to string them up because their vendetta is against the Catholic Church, not law enforcement.

    As for Ratzinger, his organization was responsible for developing the child protection measures that the Church FINALLY put in place because of this mess. No one seems to be mentioning this either.

    I am a Catholic. These coverups have been disgusting. There are evil Bishops who need to be ultimately removed. I believe this will happen but as in our own legal system, these things take time. The priests who committed these acts are despicable and need to be purged. More will be exposed and as painful as this will be for people like me, the truth is the truth and it must come out.

    At the same time, let’s be sure ALL the facts are reported accurately. The Pope is being slammed unfairly.

    Joe Garrison

  • http://liberatedmind.com LiberatedMind

    Child rape cases by priests often do not become publicly known until the victim reaches adulthood. Many factors can contribute to this: embarrassment, family shame, confusion about whom to trust, or the child simply not informing anyone of the abuse. As a Catholic child, I was raised to trust priests as “men of god” and as stand-ins for Jesus. When someone whom your parents has trained you to trust sexual molests you, things can become very confusing. Who do you tell? Is this right or wrong?

    In Fr. Murphy’s case, the 200 victims did not speak up immediately. I fail to see how the span of 20 years and Murphy’s age changes the severity of this crime and warrants it to be dismissed by Cardinal Ratzinger. The salt in the wound is his latest comment on Palm Sunday saying that the media coverage of the child abuse allegations are “petty gossip”.

  • Joe Garrison

    My original comment was to point out that the Vatican/Ratzinger wasn’t notified about this in the 70′s as Hitchens seems to spin it in his Maher appearance. However, since my posting I’ve seen an article by Fr. Brundage, who was in charge of the investigation of Murphy. Tough to find it, since of course the NY Times never even bothered to contact or question him. Seems like it would be worthy of a phone call.

    Brundage says that indeed THE TRIAL WAS STILL UNDERWAY when Murphy died, Ratzinger DID NOT request it be stopped and he might not have been involved at all but certainly did not ask for it to be dismissed.

    This is a most informative letter. Read it all:

    http://catholicanchor.org/wordpress/?p=601

    Joe Garrison

  • http://liberatedmind.com LiberatedMind

    Thanks for the link. It is reported by the NYtimes that Murphy wrote a plea letter to Ratzinger asking that his case be dismissed because of his age, claiming he had repented of his sins to god (as though this was enough to rectify the damage he had done). Immediately after this letter was written, the investigation by the Vatican for Murphy’s case was halted. Whether the preist is dead or alive, his actions should still be condemned by the organization in which he was a “representative of Christ”. The Vatican has not offered decent apologies for this or any child abuse case. This was also only one of many cases in which Cardinal Ratzinger and other church officials were in charge of keeping quiet by moving molesting priests around to avoid scandal. Instead of admitting fault, the Pope calls the allegations of child abuse “petty gossip”. I disagree with him. I think that child rape is the most serious crime of all crimes and calling it “petty gossip” downplays its severity on a disturbing level. thanks for commenting!

  • Joe Garrison

    Right, the NYT reported that the investigation was halted by the Vatican. However, the person who was overseeing the investigation says this is not true, and he does so quite vehemently. It’s shoddy & sensationalistic journalism.

    The “petty gossip” comment referred to the NYT lies, not the child abuse issue. Benedict has spoken out plenty about the abuse cases in addition to all the changes he’s overseen in this decade with respect to handling of abuse cases. He’s the only Pope to ever meet with the victims, and has apologized many times though I would agree that there are no “decent apologies” whatsoever for child rape. If I were a victim or parent of a victim I don’t think I could ever accept any apology – sort of like a murderer apologizing to the victim’s family.

  • Aaron

    Yeah Chrystine, the ‘petty gossip’ comment was aimed at the media, not the case at hand. For a religious institution that proclaims morality and loving each other, for the Pope to try belittle the issue would be incredibly hypocritical. And that’s not for our reputation – we’ve been sticking the finger at society for 2000 years – it’s for our own personal sake. Why talk about saving souls when you’re messing with little boys.

    If the Pope wants to keep in line with Jesus’s teaching, he’d have to look at this passage:

    Mt 18:6 “But he that shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be drowned in the depth of the sea.”

    Unfortunately, there will always be bad apples everywhere.

  • http://liberatedmind.com LiberatedMind.com

    Sure, there are bad apples everywhere. But Ratzinger for 20 years was in charge of disciplining priests who stepped out of line. He dismissed cases of child rape and helped move priests around to other parishes. His main goal was avoiding scandal, not solving the issue so others would not suffer child rape, nor was he interested in helping the victims find restitution. It is shameful that he thinks the media coverage on his attempt to cover for the child rapists is “petty gossip”. Petty gossip is talking about the Kardashians. Bringing to light the mismanaged way the catholic church has handled it’s sexual abuse cases for over 50 years is a far cry from petty gossip.