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Abuse Victims Want to Take Claims to Pope

MSN
March 23, 2012

http://news.msn.co.nz/worldnews/8440125/abuse-victims-want-to-take-claims-to-pope

Victims of pedophile priests hope to present a demand for justice to Pope Benedict XVI when he visits Mexico.

Debate has grown around the Vatican's handling of the scandal surrounding the influential order of deceased Mexican priest Marcial Maciel ahead of the papal visit to Mexico, which begins on Friday.

Maciel directed the influential Legion of Christ order, which he founded in 1941, to his death.

Benedict XVI has met victims of sexual abuse during foreign visits, but is apparently not planning to do so in Mexico, where many victims are still seeking justice.

Apologies "aren't enough. They're worth nothing. The Church needs to bring justice to all the abusers," Joaquin Aguilar, spokesman for the Network of Survivors of Sexual Abuse by priests, told AFP.

The group, representing 129 victims, is seeking an audience with the Pope, who will travel to the central conservative state of Guanajuato until Monday, when he leaves to visit Cuba.

"His visit makes me infinitely sad," said Saul Barrales, who was an assistant to disgraced Mexican priest Maciel and believes the current Pope knew early on about abuses he committed.

Maciel, who died in 2008, was accused of molesting eight seminarians and secretly fathering children.

After years of growing complaints, the Vatican finally forced him to abandon all his positions in 2006.

Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, led the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 1981 to 2005, coinciding with a period in which many complaints were made against Maciel.

"Ratzinger knew everything. He knew the truth," according to Barrales.

The first complaints were made to the Vatican in 1998 but it was only eight years later, in 2006, that Catholic authorities obliged Maciel to give up public office and "withdraw to a life of prayer and penitence."

Vatican expert Marco Tosatti said Ratzinger was the first to mistrust the founder of the Legion of Christ.

"Maciel had an unusual capacity. He was manipulative and charismatic but Ratzinger was the first to see through that image. He tried to block him, but he couldn't because of people close to the Pope who didn't want to believe the accusations," said Tosatti.

"Once he was elected Pope, he acted very fast (to investigate)," he added.

Faced with pedophile scandals in Europe and the United States, Benedict XVI decided in May 2010 to take control of the Legion of Christ.

 

 

 

 

 




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