VATICAN CITY
U.S. Catholic
By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI’s disgust over the abuse scandals marring the church was made evident even before his election as pope.
In his forceful Way of the Cross meditations, which he wrote as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in the few weeks before his election as pope in 2005, he wrote for the world to hear: “How much filth there is in the church, and even among those who, in the priesthood, ought to belong entirely to him.”
That straightforward attitude, coupled with sympathy for victims and commitment toward prevention, marked much of the pope’s subsequent eight years as pope.
“Pope Benedict XVI will certainly be remembered for his extraordinary reply and response to the very sad phenomenon of sexual abuse of minors by the clergy,” Auxiliary Bishop Charles Scicluna of Malta told Vatican Radio. The bishop was promoter of justice at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, handling accusations of clerical sex abuse from 2002 to 2012.
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