UNITED STATES
Your Mileage May Vary….
So.
Unless you were hiding under a rock this week, you know by now that Pope Benedict XVI has announced… abruptly… that he will resign from the papacy effective February 28th of this year. Citing health reasons, Pope Benedict XVI said that he didn’t feel that his strength would allow him to continue, especially since his personal physician has barred him from any more trans-Atlantic flights.
What is interesting to me is both the abruptness of, and the rarity of, such a move. Pope John Paul II, in failing health, was propped up for years before he finally succumbed, and no Pope has resigned since 1415, and only once before that, in the 13th century. Interestingly, and perhaps ominously, both prior resignations were shrouded in scandal.
In my opinion, so is this one.
While the Pope very well may be in failing health, it is also undeniable that he was the central player in one of the blackest and most damning scandals to haunt the Vatican since the Sale of Indulgences in the middle ages.
Joseph Ratzinger, as a new Cardinal, was put in charge of the “Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,” (formerly known as “the Inquisition”). It was in this capacity that Pope John Paul II put Cardinal Ratzinger in charge of investigating charges of child rape and torture by Catholic priests. And therein lies the scandal.
Instead of rooting out the evil that was being perpetrated by a sin-laden clergy, Cardinal Ratzinger, in a confidential letter to every bishop, actually made reporting incidents of abuse to be an offense punishable by excommunication. You read that right. As the London Observer reported in 2005, clergy in the Catholic Church were warned not to share any information with law enforcement authorities or the press. Abuse and child rape allegations were to be investigated “In the most secretive way… restrained by a perpetual silence.. and everyone… is to observe the strictest secret which is commonly regarded as a secret of the Holy Office… under the penalty of excommunication.” (emphasis added).
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