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  The Pope: The Sex Abuse Crisis Gets Closer and Closer

Daily Dish
March 13, 2010

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/03/the-pope-the-sex-abuse-crisis-gets-closer-and-closer.html

[with video]

VATICAN CITY -- First his brother, now this from the Süddeutsche Zeitung:

"With the knowledge of the current pope, in the 80s a previously incriminated (charged with child molestation) priest was moved to Munich. There he abused more adolescents--and he continues to work today as a priest in Upper Bavaria."
The London Times puts the news bluntly enough:

The Pope was drawn directly into the Roman Catholic sex abuse scandal last night as news emerged of his part in a decision to send a paedophile priest for therapy. The cleric went on to reoffend and was convicted of child abuse but continues to work as a priest in Upper Bavaria.

The priest was sent from Essen to Munich for therapy in 1980 when he was accused of forcing an 11-year-old boy to perform oral sex. The archdiocese confirmed that the Pope, who was then a cardinal, had approved a decision to accommodate the priest in a rectory while the therapy took place.

The priest, identified only as H, was subsequently convicted of sexually abusing minors after he was moved to pastoral work in nearby Grafing. In 1986 he was given an 18-month suspended jail sentence and fined DM 4,000 (£1,800 today). There have been no formal charges against him since.
But the victim of this abuse found out as late as 2006 that the priest

was still working with parishioners, including children.
The Vatican is claiming that Cardinal Ratzinger, as he then was, had no clue about any of this:

Mgr Gruber said that the Pope, who was made a cardinal in 1977, had not been not aware of his decision because there were 1,000 priests in the diocese at the time and he had left many decisions to lower-level officials. "The cardinal could not deal with everything," he said. "The repeated employment of H in pastoral duties was a serious mistake ... I deeply regret that this decision led to offences against youths. I apologise to all those who were harmed." He did not indicate whether the convicted paedophile would be allowed to continue working in the church.

An American group, Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said it "boggles the mind to hear a German Catholic official claim that a credibly accused paedophile priest was reassigned to parish work without the knowledge of his boss, then-Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger". Any expulsion of a priest from the Church, however, must go through the Vatican.
It boggles my mind too, as well as the fact that, according to his former victim, this convicted pedophile is still even working in the church around children! And why is he given anonymity as "H"?

 
 

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