Pope Benedict Shifts the Blame for Clergy Sex Abuse

SNAP
April 11, 2019

http://www.snapnetwork.org/pope_benedict_shift_blame_clergy_sex_abuse_apr19

Pope Benedict is again rubbing salt into the wounds of victims and trying to burnish his own deservedly-tarred reputation by blaming others for the church's decades-old abuse and cover up crisis.

The number one cause of the crisis in Benedict's eyes is the 1960s. Again. And the church's role in all of this, he claims, was just not having the right policies in place to oust the child molesting clerics. By blaming the sexual abuse crisis on the “moral laxity that swept the west in the 1960’s,” Benedict attempts to hand-wave away the serious crimes committed against children and vulnerable adults with the laziest kind of whataboutism.

This attempt, of course, fails to explain why church officials then continued to shield abusers beyond the 60s, 70s, and 80s and well into today. It also says nothing about why Benedict himself was involved in covering up cases of abuse, such as that of Fr. Lawrency Murphy who abused deaf children in Wisconsin. Are we to assume that Benedict himself also fell victim to this moral laxity? How convenient for him.

The only good that comes of Benedict’s statement is that it serves to remind all of us, again, how out-of-touch the Catholic hierarchy can be.

We hope that when this document is published, that the public and faithful alike will take it as what it is: a tardy, unnecessary, and hurtful defense of something indefensible.

CONTACT: Zach Hiner, Executive Director (zhiner@snapnetwork.org, 517-974-9009)

(SNAP, the Survivors Network, has been providing support for victims of sexual abuse in institutional settings for 30 years. We have more than 25,000 survivors and supporters in our network. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)