LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Tablet
April 11, 2019
By Ruth Gledhill
The former Pope has blamed the 1960s as an “egregrious” decade that is at the roots of the clerical sex abuse crisis in the Catholic Church.
In an essay today, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI writes: “In the 1960s an egregious event occurred, on a scale unprecedented in history. It could be said that in the 20 years from 1960 to 1980, the previously normative standards regarding sexuality collapsed entirely, and a new normalcy arose that has by now been the subject of laborious attempts at disruption.”
He published the essay in the Klerusblatt, a monthly periodical for clergy in mostly Bavarian dioceses, after running it past the Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Pope Francis himself, it seemed appropriate to publish this text in
Outlining the effects of the 1960s on Catholic priests and seminarians, he says he wrote the essay in an attempt to respond to the Vatican Meeting on the Protection of Minors, where in February the presidents of the world’s bishops’ conferences gathered at the Vatican to discuss the current crisis of the faith and of the Church.
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