In 2013, shortly after the election of Pope Francis, the veteran Vatican watcher John Allen went to Argentina to learn more about the history and life of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio and to sketch his personality profile. From his research, some ambiguous situations emerged on the response by Bergoglio on two cases of sexual abuse, a story already mentioned by the Washington Post on March 18, 2013, five days after the election.

The two cases concerned Fr. Julio Cesar Grassi, indicted in 2009 in two cases of abuse and acquitted in many others, and Fr. Napoleon Sasso, indicted in 2007 for abusing five underage girls.

Allen stressed that neither Grassi nor Sasso are priests of the archdiocese of Buenos Aires and therefore did not fall under Bergoglio’s direct supervision. And he explained that the two stories are separate because Bergoglio’s involvement is different according to the stories.

In the case of Sasso, many believe that the responsibility does not lie directly with Bergoglio. In the case of Grassi, Bergoglio was accused of attempting to alter the course of justice.

These stories have come to light several times over the years. For example, in the French documentary directed by Martin Baudot, entitled “The Code of Silence,” released in 2017, or an investigation by the German weekly Spiegel. Just as, for a period, there was talk of Mario Inzoli, convicted of abuse, suspended by Benedict XVI, and reinstated by Pope Francis.

These situations do not represent an attack on Pope Francis. However, they serve to underline that, behind a notion of zero tolerance, everyone can be accused of not behaving correctly.

This is happening now in Germany, with the Munich Archdiocese’s report on abuses. The report covers a very long time (from 1945 to 2019), includes about a thousand pages, and points out that there were at least 497 people who suffered abuse in this period in the archdiocese. This includes two cases attributable to poor management. Cardinal Reinhard Marx, however, did not offer in this case his resignation, as he had done a few months ago, justifying the request to the Pope as a “personal failure” in the management of sexual abuse – a resignation that Pope Francis rejected.

But the spotlight is on the four cases in the archdiocese of Munich when the archbishop was Joseph Ratzinger. The situation of one of these cases – the “chaplain H,” namely Peter Hullerman – had already been clarified 12 years ago when it came to light amid the many attacks that arrived as a perfect storm in 2010. On the other three, the 82 pages that Benedict XVI sent as a recollection and personal contribution are authentic. In the press conference, the experts said that he knew nothing about people’s circumstances but that the victims are convinced that he did.

There is no evidence for this claim. Just as there was no evidence of cover-ups or bad management by Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, archbishop of Cologne, forced to a six-month spiritual retreat for what the nunciature called a communication error. Just as there was no evidence against Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, archbishop emeritus of Lyon, acquitted of cover-up charges, but not by public opinion, so much so that he was forced to resign.

Today, the proliferation of reports of the episcopal conferences, commissioned to external bodies, risks turning into the opposite of what they are meant for. More than truth operations, they become marketing operations, with the bishops busy apologizing and expressing shame to gain credit in public opinion.

There is no doubt that cases of abuse should be condemned and that the priests who perpetrate them should be punished and prevented from continuing their pastoral exercise. However, it is also beyond doubt that everything must be done according to justice, taking contexts into account. Pope Francis spoke several times of the hermeneutics of the epoch as necessary for understanding situations and modi operandi.

These reports, however, do not reach judicial truth, are based on only partially verified testimony, and provide an estimate of cases of abuse not based on judicial records. The methodology is not solid. But it can’t be said. In France, Karine Dalle took a strong position, leading communications for the French Conference of Bishops. She was fired. She was first the spokesman of the archbishop emeritus of Paris Michel Aupetit, who shortly afterward found himself facing a media campaign for allegedly improper relations with a woman: the Pope accepted his resignation “on the altar of hypocrisy.”

The case of the Munich Archdiocese report is no exception. But, and this is the point, anyone could be involved in allegations of mismanagement, perhaps because they underestimated a request or because his first reaction was not the best. It happens. And then the most prominent target is chosen, effectively saving the face of the other people involved or responsible. It had happened, too many times, with Benedict XVI when he was Pope, and it is happening again now that he is Pope Emeritus.

However, the question remains whether this “zero tolerance” desired by Pope Francis, with actions of different types starting from the spectacular summit on abuses in February 2019 up to the abolition of the pontifical secret, cannot one day turn against the Pope himself. Cases that had already been spoken of are not withdrawn, and are used to attack the pontificate. It is possible because this is the state of things.

The Pope is aware of this. So he began to isolate himself from those who could have caused him a scandal, such as Archbishop Gustavo Zanchetta, brought to Rome with the ad hoc role of assessor of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See and then sent back home when a trial against him was coming up.

This, however, may not be enough. And if Benedict XVI is always an easy target, it does not mean that the same tactic cannot also be applied against Pope Francis. There are cases in which to play with a narrative. Up to now, there has been no will to do that.

 

8 Responses to Pope Francis, why the issue of abuse is crucial for him

  1. Elias Galy scrive:

    The handling of the “abuse crisis” can be better I think. The overall impression in the news is too confused. Lumping all cases under an “abuse” banner for publicity and then trying to resolve them together-and-separately, simultaneously scrambling over issues to do with privacy, or exaggeration, or outrage, or who repented properly already, or mistake, etc., is very conflicted, quite unmanageable and a mishmash.

    The temptations for optics run very high and this is unfair on the faithful. And if you already have an inclination or habit for optics it is making it worse.

    Benedict XVI would have done many things right and the Church should be building on them confidently. This area is kept in the shadows still and disputes want to arise when it gets mentioned.

    The ideas floating around -instead- that “now things are really happening” and “it really had to come to this after all” and other things like that, are not just misleading, they suggest scandal. Add to it the free pass given to people like Fr. James Martin SJ, where one is forced to assume it is “because they have the truly humane and seamless garment understanding and approach” -compounds the irrationality. Come, come, this is incomprehensible.

    Then there is the problem of dismissing rules. Rules in the first place would have put a check on the mushrooming of a very bad form of evil. Benedict was putting back in some rules, but then we hear that personalist formatting demands, in a very absolutist sense, that rules can be suspended at any time and those who advocate rules can not be trusted. Even with the personalist formatting we are left none the wiser.

    It surely is not the wisdom of being conformed to the perfection in Christ – 1 Colossians 1, 28.

    What example is there, to be followed and relied upon confidently? If there is a glory in the Lord how do we share in it. We can only hope and pray.

  2. Elias Galy scrive:

    Correction: it is Colossians 1:28 not “1 Colossians 1, 28″

  3. Elias Galy scrive:

    Andrea Tornielli has done a re-describing without admitting any of the debilitating things -see the link to VATICAN NEWS editorial January 26 2022, “The Munich Report and Ratzinger’s fight”.

    In the process he makes flawed arguments: straw-man, self-contradictory, purposing to repeat the past and sustain and re-justify the maladjustment – in a tone of preemption, disallowing dialogue for a true review.

    As I see it his position is leading Semi-Pelagian.

    ‘ The reconstructions contained in the Munich report, which – it must be remembered – is not a judicial inquiry nor a final sentence, will help to combat paedophilia in the Church if they are not reduced to the search for easy scapegoats and summary judgments. Only by avoiding these risks will they be able to contribute to the search for justice in truth and to a collective examination of conscience on the errors of the past. ‘

    https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2022-01/munich-report-sexual-clerical-abuse-germany-ratzinger.html

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  6. Elias Galy scrive:

    I reiterate the point I wish to make: Benedict had laid out a very sound groundwork, which can be see in his letter to the Catholics of Ireland dated March 19 2010, found at the link below for Catholic World Report March 20 2010.

    All that is needed is to follow it. It’s that simple.

    I do not point fingers at Ireland. Let each Archdiocese reflect on it. Once again, we have the same issue – “honest self-examination”. Are we willing to truly do it? And then are we willing to carry through with the integrity of it as faith demands?

    If we have this template from Benedict that is already sound and effective, what is all the vagrancy about and looking for adaptations waiting for “collective consciousness”?

    https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2010/03/20/pastoral-letter-to-the-catholics-of-ireland/

  7. Guisseppe Lee scrive:

    Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger represented the best of the German catholic church. An abuse victim who met and talked with him at the Vatican said that Pope Benedict XVI “was a saint”. In contrast, Cardinal Marx represents the worse of the German hierarchy. First pressuring pope Francis to modify the vow of celibacy, ordination of women, and now mistakenly accuses Cardinal Ratzinger of negligence…I wish pope Francis would have accepted his resignation.

  8. Elias Galy scrive:

    I am told that Rilinger is a jurist (and retired). I am confident that if we persist in what we should be doing, soon we will have a full slate of self-declared Semi-Pelagians on the notice board.

    https://kath.net/news/77426

    https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2022/01/30/benedict-xvi-and-the-abuse-report/#comment-297039

    https://cruxnow.com/church-in-europe/2022/01/head-of-german-bishops-calls-on-benedict-xvi-to-ask-forgiveness-over-abuse-report

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