Benedict XVI Provokes Critics of His April Essay on Clerical Sex Abuse

By Christa Pongratz-Lippitt
LaCrois International
September 17, 2019

https://international.la-croix.com/news/benedict-xvi-provokes-critics-of-his-april-essay-on-clerical-sex-abuse/10860

Benedict XVI being assisted on his way out of the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery inside the Vatican Gardens, April 17, 2017. (Photo by Lena Klimkeit/dpa/MaxPPP)Benedict XVI has ignited new controversy by issuing a stinging response to critics of an essay in which he blamed the 1968 Movement for triggering the clerical sexual abuse of minors.The 92-year-old retired pope originally put forth his thesis with the 6,000-word article "The Church and the Scandal of Sexual Abuse", published last April in the Bavarian clergy journal Klerusblatt.A number of German-speaking scholars promptly contested the article. Benedict, who resigned from the papacy in 2013, decided to respond to the criticism through a "letter to the editor" Herder Korrespondenz. The prestigious theological monthly published the letter in its September edition.Entitled "68 and the Abuse", the letter deplores the "typical inadequacy" of his critics' reaction to his essay and accuses them of missing the main focus of what he had to say.'Abuse is the result of a world without God'"I wrote, 'A world without God can only be a world without meaning... Western society is a society in which God is publicly absent and in which He has nothing more to say to society. And that is why it is a society in which the measure of what is human is increasingly becoming lost'," Benedict said."In most of the reactions [to his original essay], as far as I can see, God fails to appear at all and so the very crux of what I wanted to discuss is not discussed at all."Benedict specifically rebuked Birgit Aschmann, professor of 19th century European history at Humboldt University in Berlin.In a four-page article published in the July issue of Herder Korrespondenz, the 52-year-old German professor pointed out that historical research "knows nothing about a general normlessness as the result of a sexual revolution (in the 60s) and quite certainly not among Catholics"."What really influenced them in 1968 was something quite different, namely the encyclical Humanae vitae," she claimed.Historian says Benedict is ignoring scientific evidenceAschmann accused Benedict of ignoring the findings of socio-scientific research. She charged him with arguing solely from "biographical memory fragments without even going into how representative they were."In his letter to the editor, Benedict mentioned Aschmann's article in only one brief, but poignant sentence."What strikes me is that God, who was the central focus of my essay, is not mentioned once in the four pages of Ms. Aschmann's article," the former pope said.Volker Resing, editor of Herder Korrespondenz, claimed that Benedict's view of the 1968 Movement was "pure cultural pessimism".In an article posted on the Cologne archdiocese's web portal Aug. 28, he said this completely negative view of society prompts one to ask what has happened to Benedict's views on Christian hope.Resing pointed specifically to these words in the 2007 encyclical, Spe salvi, which Benedict published in the third year of his pontificate:"We have been given hope, trustworthy hope, by virtue of which we can face our present. The one who has hope lives differently; the one who hopes has been given the gift of a new life."Theologian calls on Benedict to push for release of Vatican documentsMeanwhile, Magnus Striet, professor of fundamental theology at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau, also called Benedict's analysis into question.He asked rhetorically: "Who appointed the bishops who have now been accused of hushing up abuse or who were themselves actually perpetrators? Were they all members of the 1968 Movement?"In an article posted on the German bishops' conference's web portal, the 55-year-old theologian criticized the former pope for not doing more to reveal what the Vatican actually knew about the historical cases of clergy sex abuse.Striet said that instead of getting so upset about what he sees as the decline of society, it would be "more helpful" if Benedict – who had been prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) for more than 23 years – demanded that an independent commission be allowed to examine the documents the CDF has been hoarding since the year 2000.