Benedict’s resignation should not be all that surprising. He has maintained that a pope can resign, and canon law provides for it.
Despite his reputation as a hard-line, Ratzinger expressed discomfort with the tendency to idolize the pope, culminating in the rock-start image of John Paul II. At one point Ratzinger said that the separated Eastern Churches would only have to acknowledge the papacy as it existed in the first millennium, when it was not all that important.
In their battles with secular and totalitarian states, popes put the focus on themselves as the locus of unity in the Church – ubi Petrus, ibi Eccelsia. This may have been necessary to prevent the church from being taken captive by nationalist and totalitarian governments (as has happened with a large segment of the Catholic Church in China). But such a focus distorts the papal office.
One result has been an unrealistic expectation about what a pope can or should do. The impression is that the pope can by his own will change whatever he wants in the Church, including the moral law. He could allow priests to marry, allow women to be ordain, say that contraception, abortion, and homosexual acts are not sins, etc.
Maciel told the seminarians he abused that, of course while homosexuality was wrong, the pope had given him a dispensation from that law because of his health needs.
Even when it comes to disciplinary matters, popes should not and generally do not make changes without the consensus of the church. The popes who declared the dogmas of the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption canvassed the world’s bishops and received many requests from priests, religious, and laity to declare the dogmas.
Even a change in a discipline such as celibacy would require the consensus of the world’s bishops over a reasonable period of time.
Benedict has done more that any pope in centuries (probably since Pius V) to end sexual abuse in the Church. He has not done enough, but he has done more than most bishops, priests, and even laity want. One reason the Vatican did not encourage bishops to discipline abusive priests is that the laity screamed whenever their favorite charismatic, narcissistic, abusive priest was disciplined. The bishops saw how the laity reacted, and so did the Vatican.
The responsibility for tolerating abusive priests is shared by segments of the church; those who tried to end it were often marginalized and rejected, because abusers are very popular- that is how they get access to children. In such matters, the papacy, the episcopacy, the clergy and laity all failed, and the children were sacrificed to a false image of the Church.
I think you have summed up the inability of ordinary people to do much about abusive leaders. The reason is “because abusers are very popular.” This sad aspect of human nature explains the incredible saga of that strange BBC star, Jimmy Savile. It is probably also true that false allegations against unpopular people will be more readily believed. Western Civilization has an unfortunate history of witch hunting and prosecutions to back up this unfortunate human trait. Thank God we no longer believe that witches can harm us. Yet, the Book of Exodus instructs that we should execute witches. I have always been very uncomfortable with this.
I went on a pilgrimage to Rome on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Pope JPII. The poor man was unable to finish the Mass he started and, his co celebrant, who I believe was Cardinal Ratzinger, had to step in and finish it. I think that BXVI realized then that there was a time for even Popes to retire. His retirement is for the good of the whole church if he cannot fulfill his responsibilities. I admire him for taking this course of action and am sure that his prayers and advice will help his successor.
Thx holy father!!
GOD BLESS U!!!
I have seen at close hand how “good Catholics” will turn viciously on someone who accuses even a self-declared guilty priest. It never ceases to amaze me.
Pope Benedict covered up all the cases of priestly sexual abuse in New Mexico and now the truth is coming out!Since the files have been opened to the public on pedophile priests, the Albuquerque Journal this morning features an article on its front page about a Msgr. Peter Garcia who was recycled from Los Angeles by Cardinal Roger Mahoney, to Socorro and Belen New Mexico in 1985 with the full knowledge of the Paraclete superior, Fr. Bill Perri and the then Archbishop Ropbert Sanchez! I taught special ed students in Socorro at that time and attended the parish Church of San Miguel where Msgr.Garcia presided. When Archbishop Sanchez saw me after Mass, he said to me: “Give your children (students) my love.” A lot of young boys were molested in Socorro at that time and also in Belen,NM. BTW watch STEVEN COLBERT latest show, 2/11, which has a parody about the Pope!
I do believe that Benedict’s act says much about JPII’s insistence upon remaining in office far longer than he ever should have. A decrepit Pope gives carte blanche for all the corrupt Princes (Queens?) to do as they may.
I was at Castel Gondolfo in the summer of 2000, and when JPII showed up at the window, I turned to my husband and said, “OMG, it looks like he died months ago, and they stuck an effigy of him on a stick!” I’ll probably burn a while for my irreverence, but seriously. Popes are human, too, and should resign when they no longer have the capacity to run the Church. JPII’s refusal to hand over the reins to somebody (hopefully) more capable caused the Church quite a bit of harm.
I have never felt particular fondness for B16 (to be honest, I think I am way past the point of feeling any particular fondness for any Pope—I am far too burned and suspicious at this point in my life), but I do respect and appreciate this act of resignation, and I think it is a very LOUD statement.
100% of the Cardinals voted to Beatify Pope Paul the Sixth several months ago and Benedict declared him Venerable. Personally .I take that as an indication of future events .
http://www.newengelpublishing.com/rite-of-sodomy-vol-v/
http://www.christorchaos.com/UnderstandingaCesspoolofCorruption.htm
Maciel told the seminarians he abused that, of course while homosexuality was wrong, the pope had given him a dispensation from that law because of his health needs.
And the seminarians believed him????? Wow! Talk about mind control and unwarranted submission to authority! L. Ron Hubbard would be jealous….
Maciel should have been excommunicated for that nonsense alone!
What maciel did was not nonsense. It was criminal. Maciel should have been handed over to the police for his criminal acts. The “mind control and unwarranted submission to authority” applies less to maciel’s victims – many who as I understand it were under age sixteen when the abuse began – and more to the inner ring of legion of christ priests who covered up for maciel and fostered the maciel personality cult. Many of those same stooges are in positions of power in the legion today.
Joseph, to be fair, the seminarians had been living with him and away from the parents – and across the ocean! – since they were nine and ten years old.
Joseph , to be fair, Maciel’s alleged “dispensation”was for the act of masturbation and the young “seminarians ” who were asked to releave him were adolescent boys around twelve years old.They were the original eight he brought to Rome and elsewhere from Mexico.They spent a lifetime ( now in their sixties and seventies) seeking justice .Jose Barba (one of the original youthful seminarians) has been sent the documentation from the Vatican by
sympathetic parties therein, that proves how many decades the Vatican was aware of the abuse. This includes the exiting Pope , who took a swat at Jason Berry ( it was on abc News) for questioning him on the topic when he was Head of the CDF.
Whatever Ratzinger may say or feel now , I will always remember his expression in that footage and so will countless voctims of clerical abuse.
The Legionaries and Opus Dei are the Catholic versions of the Protestant religious right figures such as Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell and the bizarre “Fellowship” in the District of Columbia. All of the above are extremely oligarchical. The Legionaries and O.D. are obsessed with money and status above all else. After the Banco Ambrosiano fiasco O.D. came out as a “savior” and gained control of media of communication at the Vatican.
We had a member of the Legionaires as our parish priest. He told me that he was really embarrassed by Fr.Maciel but that the order is mostly made up of sincere and devout men. In other news, one of my former Paraclete friends told me that he belived that pedophilia was a disease like alcoholism and that pedophiles were more like addicts who were obsessed, than deliberate wanton criminals. I think the Paracletes sincerely thought that 6 months of therapy and prayer at their Jemez Springs retreat would enable most of the pedophiles like Msgr. Peter Garcia to function in a parish. One of my gay friends said that the percentage of gay pedophiles is the same as straight pedophiles. However,I think Pope BenedictXVI had a much different view. I am reading an excellent book called “Why Priests? A Failed Tradition” by Garry Wills, a former Jesuit seminarian who is also interviewed on the Colbert Report.
Bravo to Pope Benedict for a display of good sense. Now, if only the Cardinals will follow suit. Then the enabling bishops.
AW
The photo speaks volumes.
Oso Pious, if you define pedophilia as targeting ten and under, perhaps that is true. But that is a new definition, invented most likely to except homosexuals who like pubescent boys from the charge. Homosexuals have a long history of pederasty. Also, if the Paracletes thought what your friend says, or what you think they thought, then they were truly out of touch with the reality and engaging in wishful thinking. Moreover, they seem to have lacked, as do many, the normal healthy response to child abuse.
“I think the Paracletes sincerely thought that 6 months of therapy and prayer at their Jemez Springs retreat would enable most of the pedophiles like Msgr. Peter Garcia to function in a parish.”
But Oso,
You know the Paraclete Founder Fr Fitzgibbons did not think this and purchased an area on an island .The Vatican would not allow him to place them there.
I have been in three Diocese, all which have had equally bad or worse problems as the Hispanics and Indians have endured with the recycled Jemenez Springs clients. Five young men committed suicide after being forceably sodomized as children by just one of our perverted pastors. Unfortunately, he had expired from AIDS and was found dead on his kitchen by the police when they arrived to finaaly arrest him.
The ONLY reason the Legion Founder was exposed is because of the excellent work of Jason Berry.Initially no one wanted to listen to me when I complained about the practices of Regnum Christi. Opus Dei stays under the radar because the same youth brainwashed and coerced to join and live in their Houses as wage slaves and domestics are not being listened to when they exit.
These tragic victims have finally had their say in a newly released movie.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmreviews/9871192/Mea-Maxima-Culpa-Silence-in-the-House-of-God-review.html
We all have a voice that needs to be heard .Sadly Catholics with their own pet peeves consider others who apeak out (unless it is their own personal experience ) as voices attacking the Church. Our children have been targeted and under attack from within and without the church for decades.Perhaps one day the Catholic church will again get the message that they should be teaching the Word and not trolling for the bucks.
Mary Ann, Thank you for explaining the difference between pedophilia and pedastry. In my minor seminary we studies Athenian pedastry as the highest form of love for the Greeks. Even St. Thomas Aquinas who “baptized” Aristotle for Catholics thought the male body was far superior to any female body. I am struggling with the memories of child abuse that I experienced. I don’t want to discriminate against homosexuals but I have met quite a few pederast priests and I guess the minor seminaries enticed them to prey on young boys which was criminal!
Very interesting comments Oso,
In my Parochial education we were taught it was Sparta that had a House for boys who were to be used by adult men and that the Athenians found the notion repulsive.
http://americablog.com/2013/02/did-the-pope-resign-to-avoid-facing-a-major-about-to-break-scandal.html
Listen to the radio interview in this article. A case to be filed in Rome on Monday concerning the Legion.
“One reason the Vatican did not encourage bishops to discipline abusive priests is that the laity screamed whenever their favorite charismatic, narcissistic, abusive priest was disciplined.”
These are usually laypeople whose mindset is to let the clergy do the ‘holy thing’ on their behalf. You’d never believe some of the ways they behave outside of the church buiding itself.
The best way to deal with these lay “faithful” upon a credible accusation is to take their names and hand them over to the secularists. Then, publicize how they support child molesting operations, and watch their livlihoods ‘in the world’ be diminished. Dig up dirt on them (there’s usually plenty) and expose it.
“Pope Benedict has to answer for his failure on child abuse
The pope did too little to deal with sex offenders in the priesthood. He must be held to account – in this life, not the next”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/feb/15/pope-benedict-inaction-child-abuse
Mary,
I wonder how much money priests, nuns and other Church leaders have given to the cause of gay rights. I would not doubt that much more money has gone out of the Church in favor of gay rights and gay marriage than against them.
Alton one thing is for sure , 60 million donated to one pervert Founder’s Order by a piously intentioned widow even made the world News this weekend.
http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-legion-of-christ–files-20130217,0,5040599.story
Alton,
There are plenty of nuns who have joined the LGBT cause and the Bishops in the US are open and cordial to them.
“An “open” and “cordial” meeting was held this past weekend by three U.S. Catholic bishops and the Catholic sisters whom the Vatican has called “radical” and “feminist” for their support of same-sex marriage and abortion.
The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) officers met with Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain, Springfield, Ill., Bishop Thomas Paprocki and Toledo, Ohio, Bishop Leonard Blair, all members of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).”
Read more at http://global.christianpost.com/news/radical-nuns-supporting-abortion-gay-marriage-meet-with-us-bishops-84887/#GLhoYvFp2jym2wf1.99
http://www.pridesource.com/article.html?article=9080
Personally I cannot help feeling sad for the Pope too, if only because he was so out of touch with the common man. Old and frail now, I believe he defends his stance on Vatican Two by blaming the media as a means to explain what he must realize is a tragic and failed legacy.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fighting_words/2010/03/the_great_catholic_coverup.html
http://www.cathinfo.com/catholic.php/BXVI-Blames-Media-for-Councils-Failure
The pope would have to repudiate some of the most important years of his life if he took a critical view of Vatican II. For more than a few priests the Council was their entire life. Look at Doyle, Sipe, et al who simply can’t or will not realize that the Council made things even worse than they were before. The Church is weaker everywhere because of Vatican II. Church leaders, periti, etc. were focused on the spirit of the modern age and not on the real reform that was needed.
Mary,
Nothing surprises me with these nuns anymore. They’re just as big a disgrace as the priests, probably moreso because they only focus on the crimes of priests and not their own. Fortunately history is solving these problems and religious orders are collapsing as they should.
I believe that Vatican II has done to the Catholic Church what glasnost and perestroika did to the Soviet Union. Attempting to make a stagnant, ossified system more open and accountable unintentionally hastened its collapse. What aided the USSR’s collapse was massive cynicism about Communist ideology and practice. No such cynicism exists on a large scale in the Catholic Church — yet. But it’s budding now and should it ever reach Soviet proportions, Catholicism would be finished.
The religious women have been censured for not singing the Vatican Rag about the Curia’s obsession with limiting women’s reproductive and religious freedoms and gay rights. They have not disgraced the teachings of Our Lord by desecrating the sacraments the way the clergy have. Good religious women, those who practice justice, worship kindness, and walk humbly with their God are holy women with everything to teach the fratres in unum.
Enabling pedophile clergy to roam the earth has not been the work of American religious women.
AW
Augusta,
Enabling abusive religious has been the work of women religious. Look up the Duplessis orphans. Nuns sold these kids into a life worse than slavery. At least some priests can admit that things went wrong. Nuns can’t. The thing I want to now is how many kids were beaten to death by satantic women religious?