Ratzinger Enters the Fray
The Church reaction to those pro and con the survivors is distinctively different. For the 25 years prior to his elevation as Pope, Cardinal Ratzinger, ex-member of Hitler Youth, headed the Congregatio Pro Doctrina Fidei (CDF), the organization formerly known as the “Inquisition” (originally called the “Holy” Inquisition — you can’t make this stuff up). Starting in 2001, with the approval of John Paul II, all sex abuse cases concerning minors came to CDF offices. At this point, Church policy was still excommunication for those who broke the silence surrounding the secret trials of pedophile priests, but reassignment or no reaction at all for the pedophiles themselves. In fact, had parents not gone to the Garda, Ireland’s FBI, Fr. Tony Walsh — Elvis impersonator, self-admitted abuser of over 100 children, and client of the Paracletes’ massively failed modified mission — might never have been stopped. He was not removed from the priesthood until after secular authorities had convicted him for his crimes in 1995. After.
Ratzinger represented Church authority in these cases. Everyone that I know of who was involved in the coverup was promoted. Two priests engaged in the secret trial skipped two steps, hopping past monsignor status right up to bishop. Archbishop Roger Mahony became Roger Cardinal Mahony, having taken no action amidst massive amounts of abuse allegations in his Los Angeles archdiocese. If you want to know what “massive” means: In 2007, when Mahony was still archbishop, the Church settled a lawsuit for $660 million with over 500 victims. Of course, Ratzinger eventually received the ultimate promotion from Cardinal to Pontiff.
After the Walsh case, however, the Irish Church itself went through a demotion from 95% practicing Catholics. The revelations in the Walsh case may have had significance in the plummet to 4% practicing Catholics in Dublin alone. As a mother — across the seas in Newfoundland, whose son was abused by Father Hickey for seven years — bemoaned
“I raised all my children Catholic, and today there is not one who will go inside the church.”
When Pope Benedict, Ratzinger of the CDF, as was, sent a letter that Irish reporters and the filmmakers interpret as essentially blaming Irish bishops, anonymous sources courted excommunication by releasing documents that clearly implicated the Vatican. Having read the letter myself, however, I’m not convinced that Pope Benedict was passing on the blame to the bishops. He seems to be identifying himself and the Church with the bishops, all as having made “grave errors of judgment . . . undermining the credibility” of said Church.
But still the damage was done. During the voiceover of Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny’s impassioned excoriation of the Church, Mea Maxima Culpa’s scenes of empty pews and deteriorating prayer rooms, spoke benumbed volumes on the damage Vatican silence had wreaked on the faith of Irish Catholics.
And just when you think it couldn’t get any worse, in a section called “Devil in Disguise,” the filmmakers present the case of Marcial Maciel Degollado, master fundraiser since 1941 who counted failed Republican presidential candidates, former Florida governor Jeb Bush and former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum, among his close acquaintances. Degollado (whose translated name is associated with cutting the throats of pigs; if only . . .) founded “Legionaries of Christ” an order whose rules forbade criticizing or even questioning the behavior of its founder. A United Nations study condemned said behavior, from womanizing through the abuse of seminarians and pedophilia. If there were ever a person who could accurately be called an all-purpose freak . . .
Often pictured with Pope John Paul II before the pope’s death and beatification process began, Degollado is also accused of having used part of his annual $650 million budget to buy off the organizations that should have investigated him. (Hmm, I’m wondering if any porn actors are involved.)
Cardinal Ratzinger tentatively began an investigation, but with Pope John Paul on his deathbed, Ratzinger aborted his own attempt to take action. In 2006, after John Paul’s death, a Vatican committee belatedly confessed that the accusations they had previously denied, were indeed true. (There has been no contact with Russians. Well, maybe a little bit. Well, even if there were, there’s no law against it. There is? Well. There was no quid pro quo with Ukraine, pre-impeachment, was there? Well, there was, but we do it all the time. Well, they didn’t know we were doing it, so it’s as good as not doing it. Well, we eventually released the funds, so there was no real quid pro quo. The call was perfect). Pope Benedict removed Maciel from his position so that he could spend his last few years of life in “prayer and penitence.”
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Speaking of penitence. As I understand it, the purpose of confession, officially known as the “Sacrament of Penance,” is to acknowledge one’s sins as the first step toward gaining God’s forgiveness. If the Church believes its own teachings, why not come clean, confess to the world, and throw itself on God’s mercies? As Princes of the Church serving the King of Kings, you’d think they’d welcome the opportunity to atone and earn God’s absolution. Why don’t they? I’m just asking.
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Despite defrauding both the church and civil authorities, breaking the vow of chastity, and abusing children, Maciel’s “punishment” did not include excommunication. Only after Maciel died did further Vatican investigation unearth the evidence that Father Maciel had fathered several children but, like Alexander VI, he supported them and their mothers, so I guess that makes it all right. The Legion apologized for their dead founder’s behavior after the U.N. report. After.
And now, Benedict himself will spend the last years of his life in Vatican City. As reported by Philip Pullella for Reuters, church authorities claim that the main reason he must remain in the Vatican is for security. They claim that one of the richest organizations in the entire world cannot afford the resources to shelter one ex-pope should he decide to live outside the Vatican (except for trips to Italy with which the Vatican has a longstanding treaty for the 450 citizens of its 110 acres). Of course, these authorities admit that permanent residency inside the hallowed walls keeps his diplomatic immunity intact — the immunity that would keep what one staff member called, “the crazies” from suing him for his action or inaction concerning child abuse accusations while head of the CDF. “Crazies.” How’s that for loving thy neighbor as thyself?
British citizens seeking a lawsuit could not breach the security of his immunity. In 2011, SNAP joined with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) to file a complaint of crimes against humanity with the International Criminal Court (ICC). According to the CCR website,
In May 2013, the ICC prosecutor declined to open a full investigation but indicated they would reconsider upon submission of new evidence. Meanwhile, two UN committees undertook a review of the issues and sharply criticized the Vatican in 2014.
That sharp criticism had little effect. The Vatican missed its September 2017 deadline to report on its response to the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child.
The U.N. has reported on the Church before. In 1990, the “Year of the Child” the Catholic Church had been asked to submit a report of priest abuses to the U.N. Human Rights Committee. They submitted one short report implying that the abuse was minimal and fifteen years later had submitted nothing more. Keith Porteous Wood, Executive Director of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child accused the Church, outright, of lying. In a 2010 address to the U.N. Human Rights Council he openly declared: “The claim by the representative of the Holy See that they ‘were putting their house in order’ is not borne out by the facts.” He then goes on to detail verifiable instances of obstruction. In February 2014, the U.N. went even further than Wood:
The Holy See has consistently placed the preservation of the reputation of the Church and the protection of the perpetrators above children’s best interests…
The Holy See has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed, has not taken the necessary measures to address cases of child sexual abuse and to protect children, and has adopted policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse by and the impunity of the perpetrators.
Wood’s speech, available on YouTube, addresses, in part, the 2009 statement of the Church that they are not the only religious organization that houses abusers, a “whataboutism” response that the International Humanist and Ethical Union accurately refers to as “thereby comprehensibly missing the point.” This obviously continues into 2014 when the Church responds to valid accusations by pointing out the U.N.’s “lack of understanding” and their interference in Catholic doctrinal matters. Missing the point, indeed.
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The Mea Maxima filmmakers, however, make another point about the human spirit by revealing subtle elements of hope. When Bob, Arthur and Gary decide to confront Fr. Murphy directly with no intercessors, the scene is springtime with trees richly garbed in leaves and the sun glowing lovingly through the branches, as cornfields nap peacefully beneath gentle blue skies with just the occasional cirrus cloud wafting in the breeze. It’s a relaxed country vista in graceful counterpoint to the tense encounter ahead. Fr. Murphy, an elderly man during filming (he died in 1998), admits to his past as an abuser, but assures his accusers that he is “finished with all that,” waving them away with a dismissive Wisconsin nasal twang, “don’t bother me, don’t bother me.” The strategic use of Arthur’s black and white video footage taken with Bob’s camera, highlights the previous pastoral scene, cleverly underlining Murphy’s heinous dereliction of his pastoral duties.
