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	Drummey: in Defense of Pope Benedict By James Drummey Daily News Tribune April 27, 2010 http://www.dailynewstribune.com/opinion/x457996301/Drummey-In-defense-of-Pope-Benedict Media reports that Pope Benedict XVI, when he was Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, failed to curb sexual abuse by priests in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Munich, Germany, are blatantly false. Not only has the Holy Father repeatedly denounced the crimes of priests and the failures of bishops, but he instituted policies to combat child abuse when he was Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (SCDF) in 2002. He insisted that the crimes of abusers be designated as graviora delicta, that is, most grave crimes, which put them in the same category as crimes against the Holy Eucharist, and he established a "fast-track" dismissal from the clerical state for those convicted of such crimes. The specific charges against Cardinal Ratzinger have no truth to them. For example, referring to 1980, when Ratzinger was Archbishop of Munich and Friesing, the New York Times carried this headline: "Pope Was Told Pedophile Priest Would Get Transfer." The Times offered no proof of this, saying only that his office "was copied on a memo" about the transfer of Fr. Peter Hullerman, a known abuser, into his archdiocese to receive therapy. Furthermore, it has been established that while Hullerman was undergoing treatment, the Vicar General of the Archdiocese, Fr. Gerhard Gruber, assigned him to a Munich parish without the knowledge of the archbishop. Gruber recently took "full responsibility" for the assignment of Hullerman and said that Ratzinger knew nothing about it. There is also no evidence to support the front-page headline in the New York Times that said Vatican officials, including Cardinal Ratzinger, "Declined to Defrock U.S. Priest Who Abused Deaf Boys" in Wisconsin. The priest, Fr. Lawrence Murphy, was accused of molesting some 200 boys at a school for the deaf in Milwaukee from 1950 to 1974. The fact is that Ratzinger had nothing to do with the Murphy case. When the SCDF first learned about Murphy in 1996, it ordered the Archdiocese of Milwaukee to put him on trial, even though this was not required since the statute of limitations had expired (there had been no accusations against Murphy in 20 years). The canonical trial ended in 1998 when Murphy died. Contrary to media reports that the SCDF later ordered the trial suspended because of Murphy's poor health, Fr. Thomas Brundage, who presided over the trial, said that is not true and that the trial ended only when the priest died. "On the day that Fr. Murphy died," said Brundage, "he was still the defendant in a Church criminal trial. No one seems to be aware of this. Had I been asked to abate this trial, I most certainly would have insisted that an appeal be made to the supreme court of the Church or Pope John Paul if necessary." He said that he has "no reason to believe" that Cardinal Ratzinger was involved at all in the Murphy trial, adding that "in my observation, as well as many of my canonical colleagues, sexual abuse cases were handled expeditiously, fairly, and with due regard to the rights of all the parties involved. I have no doubt that this was the work of then-Cardinal Ratzinger." Fr. Brundage praised Pope Benedict as the "most reactive and proactive of any international Church official with regard to the scourge of clergy sexual abuse of minors." He said that this Holy Father "has done more than any other pope or bishop in history to rid the Catholic Church of the scourge of child sexual abuse and provide for those who have been injured. The Catholic Church is probably the safest place for children at this point in history."
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