UNITED STATES
PolicyMic
Hannah Kapp-Klote
The Catholic Church is a complicated political and legal entity with its own logic of accountability: priests who ordain women, like Father Roy Bourgeois, are excommunicated without ceremony, and priests who molest children, or aid in covering up the activities of such priests, are kept in the church, if not promoted. Before he was pope, Joseph Ratzinger acted was a top Vatican official, helping to re-locate a priest who sexually abused over 200 deaf boys. It’s impossible to adequately assess his papacy without discussing his role in covering up priests’ sexual abuse of children for decades, and prioritizing the public image of the Church over the well being of thousands of children.
The late atheist Christopher Hitchens was one of Ratzinger’s harshest critics, especially when it came to the church’s policy of self-policing:
“The accusations, intoned Ratzinger, were only treatable within the church’s own exclusive jurisdiction. Any sharing of the evidence with legal authorities or the press was utterly forbidden. Charges 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.”
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