Before Benedict XVI became Pope of the Catholic Church, he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, an intellectual theologian within the faith. Now, after the emergence of several sexual abuse cases by priests which happened while on Ratzinger’s watch, some are calling for him to return to his former role and resign the papacy.
As the Vatican’s chief guardian of doctrine, one of the main responsibilities of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, was that of policing priests suspected of sexual abuse against children. So it is unfathomable how Ratzinger allowed the Rev. Peter Hullermann to continue pastoral work with only a “hand-slap” suspension after molesting a boy. Or while running the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Ratzinger resisted pleas from a California diocese to remove a priest who had pleaded no contest to lewd conduct for tying up and molesting two boys. Or how Ratzinger looked the other way while Wisconsin priest the Rev. Lawrence Murphy continuously molested deaf boys over a 24 year period. The Rev. James Scahill of St. Michael’s Church in Massachusetts is one of the most unlikely yet loudest voices now calling for the pope to resign. “If he can’t take the consequences of being truthful on this matter, his integrity should lead him, for the good of the church, to step down and to have the conclave of cardinals elect a pope with the understanding that the elected pope would be willing to take on this issue, not just in promise,” Scahill said. “I have met with countless victims of abuse. I have lives I can relate this to, and you know anyone with an ounce of intelligence knows the media has not created this scandal,” he said. “The institutional church has brought this onto themselves.”
The pope’s detractors cannot believe how many atrocities occurred under his authority. But what they find most confusing is how the pope has completely mishandled the fallout from these episodes in present day. People are mad, and rightly so. But the Vatican has seemingly continued business as usual. Critics say the impression of an out-of-touch pontiff who simply doesn’t grasp the enormity of the fury around the world over mounting evidence of sex abuse by priests, and the inaction on the part of the Vatican and Benedict himself is unconscionable. Prominent German magazine Der Spiegel has already declared Benedict’s papacy a failure, speaking in its most recent issue of “the tragedy of a man who had set out to write books and, only near the end of his life, was summoned to assume the Herculean office at the Vatican.” Even the pope’s staunchest admirers say he’s not the best manager, saying he is much more effective as an “authoritative teacher of the faith and not as an administrator.” But according to the Rev. Richard McBrien, a theologian at the University of Notre Dame and frequent critic of the pope, “The pope’s background as a professor of theology has little or nothing to do with the present controversy. It is simply one of the excuses offered by his well-intentioned defenders.”
The fallout from this recent series of previously undisclosed abuse cases has rocked the church, it’s members and their faith, with the media now calling this the Vatican’s “Watergate.” But centuries old traditions of church secrecy has had the Vatican and Benedict taking an old approach to the scandal. Critics say that simply MUST change and their voices may be making a small difference. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, long a bastion of protecting Vatican secrecy, is seeking greater openness by posting on its Web site Monday a concise and simply written guide to how it handles sex abuse allegations. And in his recent letter to the Irish bishops, Benedict urged greater cooperation with civil authorities in cases of pedophile priests and said he’d meet with more victims.
But is that enough? Is this all too little too late? Did then Cardinal Ratzinger fail the church over the years by failing to protect the youngest and most vulnerable members of its flock — the children? Is the pope too out of touch with common Catholics and ineffective as a modern day leader? And if so, should the pope step aside and allow a new leader to take over the reigns of Catholicism? Peder Noergaard-Hoejen, a Danish theologian on a Catholic-Lutheran commission seeking to forge better understanding between the two faiths, believes Benedict lacks the ideal credentials for his current job. “I think he was very good for the position he had before he became pope because this was an intellectual position,” Noergaard-Hoejen said. “It is of course important that the pope be able to think, but Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI, is no politician. His type is that of a German professor.”
What do you think?
"SHOULD THE POPE RESIGN?" Yes!