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What Bendict XVI has done to tackle the sex abuse problem

Jesuit Fr. Hans Zollner, the academic vice-rector of the Jesuit-run Gregorian University in Rome and head of its Institute of Psychology, talked with NCR to discuss Benedict’s record and the fallout from last’s year international summit on the sex abuse crisis held at the Gregorian, and co-sponsored by several Vatican departments.

Now that Benedict XVI is stepping down, how do you evaluate his legacy on the sexual abuse scandals?

Based on what I know personally, at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith he was the first person, and the most determined person, to take on what he called the ‘open wound’ in the body of the church, meaning the sexual abuse of minors by clergy. He came to know about a number of cases, and the intensity of the wounds inflicted on victims. He became aware of what priests had done to minors, and to vulnerable adults. As a result, he became more and more convinced that it has to be tackled, and at various levels he started to deal with it – the canonical level, the ecclesial, and the personal.

Benedict XVI is the first pope who has met with and listened to abuse victims, who has apologized, and who has written about the problem both in his letter to Irish bishops and in the book Light of the World.

One very important step was to concentrate all the legal and administrative procedures at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Another was to appoint a very intelligent, practical and dedicated man as Promoter of Justice.

Read more : Jesuit expert calls Benedict 'great reformer' on sex abuse ~ National Catholic Reporter

Comments

  1. Lucia, dont know if you have read the report or aspects of it entitled "With the Pope against the Homoheresy" written by a Polish priest,(Prof.) Fr. Dariusz Oko. No need to wonder whether these 'bloggers' will ever mention or read this report. No they wont for it is not truth, the media are interested in.
    This report tackles mainly the destructive issue of homosexual clergy in Poland. If the link doesn't show, the report is available on the Rorate Caeli website.
    http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2013/02/fr-dariusz-okos-major-article-with-pope.html

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  2. Mzala,

    No, I haven't read that particular report until now.

    I have read bits and pieces of like nature, and have also read AA-1025: The Memoirs of a Communist's infiltration in to the Church.

    A couple of years ago I visited an ex-seminarian in the psych ward in the local hospital. He was there for trying to kill himself, right before he graduated in his theological degree. He told me that when he was in the seminary in Auckland, he used to argue for homosexuality in the clergy being treated as normal, until converted by a book on exorcism. The thing is, his teachers never set him straight, so to speak, it took another seminarian (who is now a priest) to do that.

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