Pope Ratz Doesn’t Give a Damn About Children

Given the facts that are now emerging about priest abuse in Germany in 1980, one can only conclude that then-Archbishop Ratzinger (who became Pope Benedict XVI in 2005) knew about the abuse of children being committed by Father Peter Hullermann and didn’t care. Or, after he sent pedophile priest Peter Hulllermann into therapy he didn’t keep apprised about the Hullermann case because he didn’t care. It’s one way or the other. But Pope Ratz didn’t care about children being abused. He cared only about the image of the Roman Catholic Church. The New York Times reported today (“Church Was Warned About Priest, Doctor Says”): “The German archdiocese led by the future Pope Benedict XVI ignored repeated warnings in the early 1980s by a psychiatrist treating a priest accused of sexually abusing boys that he should not be allowed to work with children, the psychiatrist said Thursday. ‘I said, ‘For God’s sake, he desperately has to be kept away from working with children,’ the psychiatrist, Dr. Werner Huth, said in a telephone interview from Munich. ‘I was very unhappy about the entire story.’ “Dr. Huth said he was concerned enough that he set three conditions for treating the priest, the Rev. Peter Hullermann: that he stay away from young people and alcohol and be supervised by another priest at all times. “Dr. Huth said he issued the explicit warnings — both written and oral — before the future pope, then Joseph Ratzinger, archbishop of Munich and Freising, left Germany for a position in the Vatican in 1982. “In 1980, after abuse complaints from parents in Essen that the priest did not deny, Archbishop Ratzinger approved a decision to move the priest to Munich for therapy. “Despite the psychiatrist’s warnings, Father Hullermann was allowed to return to parish work almost immediately after his therapy began, interacting with children as well as adults. Less than five years later, he was accused of molesting other boys, and in 1986 he was convicted of sexual abuse in Bavaria.” Hullermann returned to his priestly duties, which included working with children, while he was in therapy, the NYT said. He refused one-on-one therapy and consented only to be involved in group-sessions. It was reported that Hullermann was not highly motivated to change his ways and only sat in therapy sessions to ensure that he would not be sent packing from the RCC. The Vatican is now claiming that Archbishop Ratzinger was not kept in the loop, so he didn’t know Hullermann kept abusing children after Hullermann’s so-called therapy. That doesn’t fly. In 1982, as Cardinal Ratz, Ratzinger made himself head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Ratzinger himself turned over all authority for handling abuse cases to the congregation. It was this organization that kept all matters concerning pedophile priests secret--at the direction of Cardinal Ratzinger. Pope Ratz cannot have it both ways. Either he knew about the abuse and didn’t care about the children, or he didn’t know about the abuse because he didn’t care about the children. Since it has been highly documented that as Pope John Paul II’s Enforcer, Cardinal Ratzinger was a hands-on control freak, there is no doubt that he knew all about Hullermann’s criminal activities with children. And he knew all about Dr. Huth’s recommendations. His response was to ignore the warnings and to keep reports about pedophile priests secret. The NYT also reported: “The former vicar general of the Munich archdiocese did not respond to repeated attempts to contact him for comment at home. Phone calls to the archdiocese for reaction on Thursday night were not answered. On Wednesday, speaking generally about the question of Father Hullermann’s therapy, a spokesman at the archdiocese, Bernd Oostenryck, said, ‘Thirty years ago, the subject was treated very differently in society.’” It may be true that in podunk communities around the world the subject of pedophilia was treated differently thirty years ago. But obviously, from what Dr. Huth told the New York Times, the Vatican was told by a psychiatrist thirty years ago exactly what the Vatican would be told today: you cannot let a pedophile near children under any circumstances EVER. But the Vatican, at the direction of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, ignored it.