BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

See preceding page for earlier entries for 4/9/10.



I hope the worldwide audience of Vatican Radio is as significant as that of Voice of America and Radio Free Europe behind the Iron Curtain during the years of Communism (or the BBC in World War II, before it turned into the ideological beast that it is today)... Because even the most cursory review of the audio features aired on its main language programs (and very likely even in the languages I can't read or understand) shows a remarkable initiative to put forward the voice of the Pope and the Church against all the negativity in the secular media.

Father Lombardi, with his weekly editorials, articulates the issues well and consistently, in a way that L'Osservatore Romano has failed to do simply because its reporting on the issue has been spotty and far from systematic. Congratulations to Fr. Lombardi for trying to make the most of Vatican Radio as a great megaphone for the Church's message. If it reaches the grassroots audience it is meant to reach, Vatican Radio can be far more influential than the New York Times or AP for the people who matter.


In the debate on sexual abuse,
how does the Church stay on the right course?
Translated from
the Italian service of

April 9, 2010

The debate over sexual abuse of minors - not just by priests - proceeds amidst news and commentary of varying tenor. How does the Church navigate through these troubled waters, keeping to its sure route, and responding to the evangelical admonition, Duc in altum - sail out into the open?

Above all, by continuing to seek the truth and peace for the victims.

One of the most striking things that have recently come to light are the many interior wounds in victims, wounds that go back years, even decades, but evidently still open. Many victims do not seek economic compensation, but interior help, a resolution for their own painful personal experience. Perhaps this is soemthing we still need to truly understand.

We probably need to feel more profoundly the events that have had such a negative impact on the lives of victims, on the life of the Church, and on society itself. We might draw a lesson, on the collective level, from the hatred and violence of conflicts among groups of people, that have become difficult to overcome and bring to reconciliation.

But sexual abuses wound at a profound personal level. That is why we must commend the dioceses who have had the courage to encourage ways and means for the victims to express themselves freely and to be heard, without assuming that because the events happened a while back, they may already have had this opportunity; and to the dioceses and bishops who have shown paternal attention to the spiritual, liturgical and human needs of victims.

It may well be accepted that, as in the United States, the number of new abuse claims has gone down significantly in recent years, but the path of healing in depth is just starting for some victims, and for others, still to begin.

In the context of personal attention to the victims, the Pope has said he is ready to meet some of them, as he has dione before, involving himself directly in the healing path to which the whole Church is committed.

But this is a path that, in order to achieve the profound effects needed, should develop increasingly along the criteria of absolute respect for each individual and their search for inner peace.

Alongside attending to the victims, the Church must continue to carry out with determination and truth the correct procedures required by canon law against the offenders, and of working with civilian authorities to carry out their judicial and penal competences, according to the legal norms prevailing in different countries.

Only this way will it be possible to effectively restore a climate of justice and confidence in the Church on this issue.

There are cases when various community autorities and institutions, through inexperience or lack of preparation, have not yet drawn up the criteria or plans to act with resolve, no matter how difficult and painful the process may be.

But while civilian law will intervene with general norms, canon law must also consider the particular moral gravity of the betrayal of trust by persons given the responsibility for taking care of children, and their flagrant violation of the conduct they are supposed to uphold as witnesses to Christ.

In this sense, transparency and rigor must be urgent requirements for wise and just governance in the Church.

Looking forward, the selection and training of candidates for the priesthood, and more generally, of the personnel in Catholic educational and pastoral institutions, must be the premise for an effective prevention of possible abuses.

The requirement of reaching a healthy personal maturity, including sexual maturity, has always been a difficult challenge. It has become even more so today, even if the latest advances in psychological and medical understanding can help considerably in spiritual and moral formation.

It has been observed that the greatest incidence of abuses by priests took place in the peak years of the 'sexual revolution' from the 1960s. One must also take this into account in terms of training seminarians [i.e., their teachers may well have been influenced by the 1960s cultural revolution], and in general, the influence of secularization.

In practical terms, it has to do with rediscovering and reaffirming the sense and significance of sexuality, of chastity, and of emotional relations today - in concrete terms, not merely theoretically or in the abstract. Under-estimating this significance can be such a major source of disorder and suffering.

As the Pope noted in his letter to the Irish Catholics, priests today can respond fully to the demands of a Christian and priestly life only
if they nourish themselves at the spring of faith and friendship with Christ.

Whoever loves truth and the objective assessment of problems will know how to seek and find the information needed for a more comprehensive understanding of the problem of pedophilia and sexual abuse of minors in our day, and in various countries, acknowledging its extent and pevasiveness in all sectors of society.

This will help to understand that the Catholic Church is facing a problem that is not exclusive to her; to what degree the problem presents a particular seriousness to her and the special interventions she must make; and finally, how the experience of the Church in dealing with the probem can become useful for other institutions and sectors of society.

In this respect, it appears the media have not worked sufficiently, especially in the countries where the Church has a high profile, and therefore is more easily the target of criticism.

Documents like the recent national report on abuse of minors in the United States should be made better known to make the public understand what are the areas that require urgent social intervention and the proportions of the challenge.

In 2008 alone, the report identified 62,000 persons charged with sexual abuse of minors, of which the number of priests was so small that they were not even identified as a category.

The commitment towards the protection of minors and young people is an immense and inexhaustible field of work that goes far beyond the problem of offenses by Catholic priests. Those who have dedicated themselves to alleviating the problem with sensitivity, generosity and dedication, deserve the gratitude, respect, and encouragemant of society, particularly from civilian and Church authorities.

Their contribution is essential for calm and credibility in the work of raising and educating young people in Church institutions and elsewhere. The Pope rightly expressed his great appreciation for their work in his letter for Ireland, but obviously intended for all who make this contribution.

Finally, Pope Benedict XVI - who has been a consistent guide along the path of truth and moral rigor - deserves all the respect and support expressed in all the messages that have been reaching him from every part of the world.

He is a pastor who is capable of facing this difficult time with high rectitude and certainty, notwithstanding the criticisms and unfounded insinuations directed against him.

Without prejudice, we can say that he is a Pope who has spoken much about the Truth of God and of respect for the truth, of which he gives the most credible witness.

Let us be with him and learn from him the constancy necessary for us to grow in truth and in transparency, while keeping a wide perspective on the serious problems of the world, responding patiently to the slow drip of partial or presumed 'revelations' which seek to erode his credibility and that of other persons and institutions of the Church.

We need such patient and firm love for the truth in the Church, in the society we inhabit, in communicating and in writing, if we want to serve and not confuse our contemporaries.



Senior prelates call
for halt in attacks
by PADDY AGNEW in Rome

April 9. 2010


SENIOR Italian church figures, as well as the Pope’s spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, yesterday rallied to the defence of Pope Benedict XVI, currently the object of widespread international criticism for his handling of the church’s sex abuse crisis.

In response to German media accusations [I think from one publication only, Stern, then picked up the rest] that the Pope had tried to block investigations into the founder of the Legionaries of Christ, Fr Marcial Maciel Degollado, Fr Lombardi said: “It is ridiculous and paradoxical for informed people to accuse Cardinal Ratzinger of any type of cover-up.”

He added that it had been the then Cardinal Ratzinger, in his role of prefect of the Congregation for the doctrine of the Faith, who had promoted the original Vatican inquiries into Father Maciel.

Although the Vatican has yet to communicate the findings of a recent apostolic visitation into the now disgraced order, Legionary leaders recently admitted the truth of numerous allegations of sexual impropriety made against Fr Maciel.

Another senior Church figure to defend the Pope yesterday was the Archbishop of Naples, Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, who said that he was “disconcerted” by the “vehemence and inconsistency” of allegations against the pontiff.

He said: “The Pope’s letter to the Irish faithful was both moving and inflexible. In his manner of confronting this serious plague ['piaga' means 'scourge', not 'plague'] Pope Benedict has furthermore displayed not only the style but also the very essence of a magisterium, which looks on man from the viewpoint of God.”

Cardinal Severino Poletto of Turin also added his voice in support, saying: “It’s time to put a stop to this whole business . . . If negative things have happened, no one is denying it, and, in his letter to Irish Catholics, which applies to all Catholics in the world, the Pope has repeated that we feel shame for that which some consecrated people did.”

The influential Catholic weekly Famiglia Cristiana deplored the “bad faith” of the media in Europe and North America.

“Important international sociology studies, applied to religion, have demonstrated that among Protestant pastors, the percentage of those condemned for abuse of minors is double that of Catholic priests . . . and the frequency is 10 times higher among gym teachers and the coaches of youth sports teams.”

Meanwhile, on a day when Maltese bishops expressed their “pain and sense of penitence” for the child abuse crimes of Maltese priests, yet another front in the sex abuse crisis re-emerged.

The Catholic Church in New Zealand has confirmed that a former police commissioner is investigating five “historical” cases of clerical child abuse as head of an independent authority.

The sex abuse issue is not new in New Zealand, given that eight years ago the Church apologised for its handling of sex abuse cases, admitting to 38 of them.

The New Zealand confirmation comes a day after the Archbishop of Johannesburg, Buti Tlihagale, said that the Catholic church in Africa was “inflicted with the same scourge” of sexual abuse as the church in Europe. [For that matter, can any diocese on earth really say that it is 100% free of the problem? In the same way that no lay institution in charge of children and minors cannot say that unelss it has conducted an internal scientific survey!]


MMMM..... One can only conclude that the muck-rakers have so far not turned up anything new against Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI or any of these who have worked closely with him....


So Fr. Lombardi's editorial was the basis of the following reported as 'news' today! Did anyone really think the Pope would be unwilling to meet these victims with the right arrangements? He did so without advance notice in Washington, D.C. and in Sydney. Why wouldn't it be equally likely he could meet some in a civilly arranged meeting at the Vatican, or at the right occasion once again when he is visiting abroad?


Pope is willing to meet
sex abuse victims



VATICAN CITY, April 9 (AP) -- The Vatican spokesman says Pope Benedict XVI is willing to meet with more victims of clerical sexual abuse.

Spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi told Vatican Radio on Friday that many victims are looking not for financial compensation but for moral help.

The Pope has met with abuse victims during trips to the United States and Australia and with Canadians [some native Americans abused in Catholic institutions] in Rome.


Meanwhile, here is an item I missed from CNS from earlier this week. Too bad CNS is not picked up by other media outlets other than its subscribers - mostly diocesan newspapers and Catholic publications... But then again, sometimes it makes the same routine errors as MSM.


Vatican voices in defense of the Pope
are not orchestrated at the top
by JOHN THAVIS



VATICAN CITY, April 6 6 (CNS) -- The Roman Curia's headline-grabbing defense of Pope Benedict XVI's handling of the clerical sex abuse scandal has demonstrated that when it comes to Vatican communications, the Pope is not a micromanager.

Twice during Holy Week liturgies, the Pope was caught unawares when his aides spoke passionately about the barrage of criticism the Pontiff and other Church leaders have faced in recent weeks on the sex abuse issue.

One official compared the attacks on the Church and the Pope to "the most shameful aspects of anti-Semitism," while another said the Church would survive the "current petty gossip." [It is most frustrating when even the people supposed to be on 'our' side make mistakes like this: The comparison to "...anti-Semitism' was not made by the official - he was quoting a letter from a Jewish friend. And the right translation of what Cardinal Sodano said was 'the chatter of the moment'. It must be recalled that the Pope himself used the same term - 'chiacchericcio' means 'idle talk' or 'idle chatter' not necessarily gossip.]

What Pope Benedict thought of these interventions was not clear. But in both cases, the remarks had the unintended effect of upstaging his own spiritual message about the meaning of Christ's Passion and Easter. [So much for 'serious' jorunalism!]

From the outside, the Vatican's verbal rallying around the Pope was viewed as an orchestrated campaign to counter his critics. If there was orchestration, however, it wasn't directed by the Pope.

Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa, the preacher of the papal household, basically has an open mike every time he steps up to preach for the Pope and the Roman Curia.

He also has a penchant for weaving in current events, so it was probably not a complete surprise when he began talking about the priestly sex abuse scandal at the Pope's Good Friday liturgy April 2. [One Good Friday, he spoke about The Da Vinci Code, and the next time, about the attempt to 'rehabilitate' Judas!]

But when, quoting a Jewish friend, he likened criticism of Church leaders to past efforts to pin "collective guilt" on Jews, he sparked an outcry heard around the world. [Mr Thavis, if he was quoting a Jewish friend how can you say "he likened etc...." Do we have a language problem here? It's exactly what the MSM was guilty of in reporting on the Pope's Regensburg lecture - attributing a quotation he cited to him personally!]

Amazingly, Pope Benedict and other Vatican officials had no inkling that Father Cantalamessa would put forward such a comparison. [Not his comparison!]

"No one at the Vatican has ever demanded to read the texts of my homilies in advance, which is something I consider a great act of trust in me and in the media," Father Cantalamessa said afterward.

As usual, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, was assigned clean-up duty. Hours after the liturgy, he issued a statement saying the Capuchin's analysis "was not the position of the Holy See."

On Easter Sunday, at the beginning of the papal Mass in St. Peter's Square, another salvo came from Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals.

In an unprecedented salutation to Pope Benedict, Cardinal Sodano extolled the pontiff as the "unfailing rock" of the church, praised the 400,000 priests who serve generously around the world and then said: "Holy Father, the people of God are with you, and they do not allow themselves to be impressed by the current petty gossip, or by the ordeals that occasionally strike the community of believers."

The Pope rose and embraced Cardinal Sodano. But in this instance, too, the Pope was not informed ahead of time about a text that soon would be making headlines.

"I can exclude that the Pope requested or saw in advance the text of Cardinal Sodano's greeting," Father Lombardi told Catholic News Service.

Whether in Rome or abroad, the Pope simply doesn't have time to personally preview the many speeches or brief greetings that are addressed to him, Father Lombardi explained.

Considering that this one came from the dean of the College of Cardinals, it was probably not subject to revisions by anyone else, either, he said.

Cardinal Sodano's remarks got more news coverage than the Pope's own words, leading some to complain that the Vatican couldn't manage to stay on-message even at Easter.

But that didn't bother Vatican officials, who said it was important to let the Pope and the world know that his Church supported him at this moment.

[I agree! It was the perfect occasion for doing so. After all, the morning Mass did not include a homily by the Pope, because he would deliver his Easter message Urbi et Orbi later - and that was not eclipsed by anything, since it had worldwide TV coverage.]

One source said the decision to add the greeting to the Pope was reached the evening before, based on a growing sense that to say nothing might leave the impression that the Pope was isolated in the face of criticism.

Critics of the Vatican's communications apparatus have long argued that not enough attention has been paid to the way comments by individual cardinals or other Vatican officials will play in the media. [I suppose because the Pope trusts that Curial officials should be responsible enough to be prudent about anything they say, even if historically, the Curia has always had a couple of loose cannons among them. The loosest one until he retired late last year was the former President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and peace, Cardinal Martino, whose recent remarks ranged from comparing Gaza to a Nazi concentration camp because of the Israeli embargo against it, which angered the Israelis, to proclaiming 'Ten Commandments' for drivers, which earned him a lot of derision in the media.]

But to date there have been no serious efforts to muzzle these officials or vet their public remarks. Indeed, for such a hierarchical organization, the Vatican has an amazing plurality of voices.


Now, here's a lady after my own heart. Give it to 'em, Sister Mary Ann!


Media decides, then reports
By Mary Ann Walsh
Director of Media Relations,
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

April 8, 2010


Generally I don't battle those buying ink by the barrel. However, recent coverage of the Catholic Church by mainstream media makes me wonder what has happened to the Fourth and Fifth Estates.

Maybe it's that cutbacks have decimated newsrooms of knowledge and experience. Maybe it's the competition inherent in a 24/7 news cycle that makes some stories too good to check. Maybe it's the current incivility it America where decency gets short shrift.

Some quarters of the media in the past few weeks seem to have a difficulty in getting stories right and fair. Fact-checkers and skeptical editors may have gone the way of dinosaurs. Some media appear to cite people for inflammability and absurdity, not knowledge. At times it seems that bias abounds, libel runs freely, and scrutiny lies by the side of the road.

Example: The Washington Post ran an opinion piece on Palm Sunday by Irish singer Sinead O'Connor, whose claim to fame in the U.S. previously was for a Saturday Night Live performance 18 years ago when she ripped up a picture of Pope John Paul II. As the Washington Post's theologian at the start of Holy Week, she declared that "all good Catholics ... should avoid Mass."

The Web site of the same newspaper ran a vitriolic blog entry by atheist Richard Dawkins. The British scientist called the Catholic Church an "evil, corrupt organization" and a "rotten edifice" and spewed more of his anti-Catholic screed in, of all places, the On Faith section of the Washington Post-Newsweek blog.

Neither Sinead O'Connor nor Richard Dawkins, while free with their opinions, seems an expert on Catholicism. They're simply well-known. Given that editorial criterion, readers might worry that if cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer were still alive, the Post would hire him as a food critic.

MSNBC libeled the Pope in Holy Week with a Web site headline - "Pope describes touching boys: I went too far" - which has since been removed. The headline was intended to grab attention - it did - but had not a shred of substantiation in the story it headed.

Fellow media outlets, who rightly cry indignantly when they see plagiarism among their brethren, gave MSNBC a pass on the libel. MSNBC dropped the headline and apologized after the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights made noise.

A main source for many media these days seems to be plaintiffs' attorneys, who distribute old material they've "found" in the discovery process. Plaintiffs' lawyers speak of "secret" documents, more properly called "confidential," and offer their own interpretation of the materials as well as church motivation in drafting them.

Media with a frightening naiveté report on these materials as if the plaintiffs' lawyers constitute a new Oracle of Delphi. On Wednesday of Holy Week AP reported as "breaking news," a 1963 letter "obtained by the Associated Press" about pedophilia that was sent to Pope Paul VI by Father Gerald Fitzgerald, who headed a now-closed treatment center in New Mexico. What took AP so long? Father Fitzgerald's letters were reported in The New York Times a year ago.

The story didn't take hold then, but with nothing better to use to keep their story going, plaintiffs' attorneys recycled the documents and AP thought it had the scoop of the year.

There's a lot to be reported on child sexual abuse. It's a sin and a crime and more prevalent in society than anyone ever dreamed before the 21st century.

Some organizations, such as the Catholic Church in the United States, have made massive efforts to deal with it. People are learning how to spot abusers. The Catholic Church has educated more than two million people to do so. Children are learning how to protect themselves. The Catholic Church has educated more than five million children in this regard.

There are lots of stories there. But such stories take time to report and plaintiffs' attorneys make no money promoting them. And that, at least for now, isn't news.


Sister Mary Ann Walsh is a Sister of Mercy of the Americas and director of media relations for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.