Laurie Goodstein at the New York Times reports today: ‘Top Vatican officials — including the future Pope Benedict XVI — did not defrock a priest who molested as many as 200 deaf boys.
Vatican Declined to Defrock U.S. Priest Who Abused Boys
By Laurie Goodstein in the New York Times
Top Vatican officials — including the future Pope Benedict XVI — did not defrock a priest who molested as many as 200 deaf boys, even though several American bishops repeatedly warned them that failure to act on the matter could embarrass the church, according to church files newly unearthed as part of a lawsuit.
The internal correspondence from bishops in Wisconsin directly to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future pope, shows that while church officials tussled over whether the priest should be dismissed, their highest priority was protecting the church from scandal.
RC child abuse was made subject to the ‘pontifical secret’
Ruth Gledhill, of the London Times writes:
Laurie Goodstein at the New York Times reports today: ‘Top Vatican officials — including the future Pope Benedict XVI — did not defrock a priest who molested as many as 200 deaf boys, even though several American bishops repeatedly warned them that failure to act on the matter could embarrass the church, according to church files newly unearthed as part of a lawsuit.
. . .
Even though the letter has been written about before, it is being examined again in light of the floods of allegations coming out from Europe and the US.
The whole affair threatens to cast a shadow over the Pope’s visit here in September. A film about celibacy and the priesthood, Conspiracy of Silence, will be launched a couple of days before the visit. And this Sunday, the human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell and the new Protest the Pope group are organising a demonstration outside Westminster Cathedral.