Pope Ratz and Brother Ratz

When the now-Pope Benedict XVI was just lowly Cardinal Ratzinger—better known as Pope John Paul II’s Enforcer--he said that the buggering of little boys in the Roman Catholic Church was “an American problem”. Now it turns out that Cardinal Ratz not only allowed a buggering priest in his Archdiocese in Munich in 1980 to return to pastoral duties after a period of bogus therapy but the offending priest went on to commit further abuses. AND Pope Ratz’s brother Ratz, Msgr. Georg Ratsinger was slapping kids around in a choir he directed in a German boarding school from 1964 to 1994. Not only that, two students in that boarding school have come forward with abuse claims. On Friday, the New York Times reported: “Experts said the scandals could undermine Benedict’s moral authority, especially because they cut particularly close to the pope himself. As head of the Vatican’s main doctrinal arm, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he led Vatican investigations into abuse for 4 years before assuming the papacy in 2005. “What is at stake, and at great risk, is Benedict’s central project for the ‘re-Christianization’ of Christendom, his desire to have Europe return to its Christian roots,” said David Gibson, the author of a biography of Benedict and a religion commentator for Politicsdaily.com. ‘But if the root itself is seen as rotten, then his influence will be badly compromised.’” So much for abuse in the RCC being an American problem. The NYT also said, “The scandal is not limited to Germany. This week, two dioceses in Austria suspended five priests pending investigations into allegations they had molested students. The church in the Netherlands has said it would open an investigation after more than 200 people came forward in recent weeks.” The Pope’s apologists are saying, of course, that he didn’t know any of this was going on. NONSENSE! As John Paul’s Enforcer, Ratz knew EVERYTHING about JPII's realm and dynasty. And JPII knew all about the abuse and molesting going on in churches and church schools around the world. What I don’t understand is why these big-time moral authority guys (read, all the Popes) can’t man-up and admit when they are wrong or when they’ve made major bad decisions. Popes, without exception, weasel out. Naturally, Pope Ratz has put JPII up for sainthood. When I hear of these guys in the God-business who have made huge moral mistakes being beatified and canonized, I always think of Livia in “I Claudius” (so wonderfully played by Sian Phillips) begging to be made a goddess, after all her shenanigans, murders, and nasty double-dealing. It's as though they believe, as Livia did, that if they can sit on Mount Olympus they won't have to face up to Judgment Day.