May 2, 2010
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Question 250 - Is Cardinal Ratzinger Guilty regarding Fr. Maciel?
Robert,
What do you make of this clip from ABC about Ratzinger’s involvement with Fr. Maciel? And what about the story we heard last week in the New York Times about Ratzinger failing to discipline the pedophile priest who had been doing his dastardly deeds for 20 years? I am very confused about this, and it is affecting my faith. Please help.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/questions-pope-benedicts-role-sex-scandal/story?id=10241536
Paul
R. Sungenis: Paul, regarding the ABC clip, it shows (without ABC actually admitting it) that Cardinal Ratzinger is to be completely exonerated. ABC admits that Ratzinger went against the wishes of the two most powerful men in the Catholic Church at that time (i.e., John Paul II and Cardinal Angelo Sodano) in seeking to bring Fr. Maciel to justice. That kind of move takes a lot of courage. It shows Ratzinger was looking toward pleasing his God and not pleasing his fellow clerics. If anyone should be under suspicion for trying to sweep the case of Fr. Maciel under the rug it is John Paul II. He was shown evidence of Maciel’s deviance for close to a decade, but he did nothing about it.
As for the issue of Ratzinger dealing with the pedophile priest, I suggest you read Cardinal Levada’s defense of the pope. It is covered (albeit not impartially) by the New York Times here:
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