BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

See preceding page for earlier entries today, 4/29/10.





The British newspaper Independent first 'speculated' about this on April 25 (posted in the preceding page of this thread), but AP has picked it up from an interview given by Cardinal Levada who says exactly one sentence about it - "He may or he may not..." But the news report is worthwhile for the other things Levada said about applying the norms adopted by the US Church in other countries.... As usual, in the process, we have to bear with the AP's malicious commonplaces...


Vatican: the Pope may apologize
for abuse by priests
By NICOLE WINFIELD



VATICAN CITY, April 28 (AP) – Pope Benedict XVI may issue a mea culpa for the Church's handling of clerical sexual abuse cases when he attends a meeting of the world's clergy in June, the Vatican official in charge of handling abuse cases said.

Cardinal William Levada also said he intended to hold up the U.S. policy dealing with abuse as a model for bishops around the word.

Levada, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, made the comments in an interview broadcast late Tuesday on U.S. public broadcaster PBS, his first interview since the scandal erupted several weeks ago.

"It's a big crisis. I think no one should try to diminish that," Levada said. He acknowledged that the Vatican was caught by surprise, even though it was well aware of the scope of the U.S. and Irish crises, and blamed "a certain media bias" for keeping the story alive.

As the scandal has raged around the Vatican, Benedict has come under increasing pressure to admit some form of higher responsibility on the part of the Vatican for fomenting a culture of secrecy that allowed abuse to fester unchecked for decades.

Benedict has expressed his sorrow and shame for the abuse, he has wept with victims and promised new measures to protect children and bring justice to pedophile priests.

But he has admitted no personal or institutional responsibility, blaming instead the abusers themselves and their bishops for mishandling cases when they arose. [This is one of those readymade slugs that the AP now automatically drops into every story about Benedict XVI. Benedict XVI has never cast his denunciations of the evil done by the abusers and some bishops in terms of blame - that is unworthy of a Christian, let alone a Pope! And what personal responsibility should he admit to? As a man of God, as priest and as Pope, he is an honest and truthful man, and if he thought that he had ever been remiss in his duties and responsibilities in this regard, he would have said so without prompting from anyone.]

Italian news reports this week suggested Benedict would use the June 9-11 meeting of the world's priests at the Vatican to issue some form of apology.

The meeting was initially called to simply mark the end of the Vatican's Year of the Priest. A few weeks ago, as Benedict came under fire in the abuse scandal, the meeting's focus shifted and its organizers signaled it would instead be a giant pep rally to show solidarity with the besieged Pontiff.

Now, it appears it will be also be a forum for Benedict to make a strong statement apologizing for abuse. [DUH! It may not necessarily take the grovelling form of apology that MSM has been salivating about, but it doesn't take an Einstein to know that, of course, the Holy Father cannot fail to use the occasion of the concluding events of the Year for Priests to address the issue - directly to those most concerned, not because they bear any responsibility for the sins of their brothers, but to make sure they learn all the lessons that can be drawn from this painful episode, and to encourage them in their difficult but heroic vocation to serve God by serving the Church and the faithful.]

Asked about the reports that a papal mea culpa would be issued, Levada said: "Whether he is going to do that or not we'll have to wait and see, but I wouldn't be surprised."

Levada was more forthcoming about his intention to hold up the U.S. abuse norms as a model for bishops conferences around the world.

The U.S. norms bar credibly accused priests from any public church work while claims against them are under investigation. Diocesan review boards, comprised mostly of lay people, help bishops oversee cases. Clergy found guilty are permanently barred from public ministry and, in some cases, ousted from the priesthood.

The U.S. policy does not specifically order all bishops to notify civil authorities when claims are made. Instead it instructs bishops to comply with state laws for reporting abuse, and to cooperate with authorities. All dioceses were also instructed to advise victims of their right to contact authorities themselves.

It requires dioceses to maintain "safe environment" programs to educate children, parents and priests to keep children safe and prevent abuse.

Levada called the norms a "real success story" that should be a model for others — bishops as well as Boy Scouts and public schools.

"I will look forward to helping my brother bishops around the world see what can be done if you take good concrete steps, put things out on the table, make sure that you've got a program to educate your priests and screen for any problem areas as you are admitting priest and have a good program for safe environment," he said.

"I think that's happened in the United States and it should be something that can be done throughout the church."

Many bishops conferences have norms on the books already; many have said they planned to revise them in the wake of the scandal. Officially speaking, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops says no European bishops conference has asked them for advice; with Levada in Rome, however, that may not come as a surprise.

Even with a Vatican-approved policy on the books, advocates for victims and Church leaders disagree over how closely the U.S. policy has been followed. And even with all the reforms, the American Church is still paying the price for the problem. [Is that a moronic statement or what? Of course, it is still paying the price - for crimes that took place before the reforms !DUH! When you're trying to put in a dig, at least make sure it makes sense!]

American dioceses have paid more than $2.7 billion for settlements and other costs since 1950, according to tallies by the bishops and news reports.


My jaw dropped when I saw the following headline in the Yahoo news summary attributed to the National Catholic Reporter... It turns out they are merely using a CNS story about the Levada interview... Which is, of course, presented without the AP bias.


Pope sets example
in meeting with abuse victims
By Carol Glatz



VATICAN CITY, April 29 (CNS) -- Bishops worldwide are encouraged to meet with victims of clerical sex abuse, just as Pope Benedict XVI has done, said the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

"There is nothing that helps bishops or priests learn about this problem better than meeting with the victims and hearing their stories," U.S. Cardinal William J. Levada said in a televised interview April 27.

Pope Benedict XVI has met with victims several times, and "that's an example to bishops," he said.

The interview, which took place in the cardinal's Vatican office, aired on PBS' "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," and was to be one of a series of reports from the Vatican.

In the 14-minute interview, Cardinal Levada said he didn't want to "scapegoat anybody or have a conspiracy theory," but he thought there has been "a certain media bias" in the way media outlets have covered the sex abuse scandals.

Reports, especially by U.S. media, have largely relied on information coming from attorneys representing alleged abuse victims and, because of that, "have not been fair in giving a balanced picture, a picture in context," he said.

He said more media attention should be paid to the positive steps the Church in the United States has taken to address its own sex abuse scandals.

The U.S. bishops in 2002 adopted landmark policies to address and prevent child sex abuse, which included the "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People."

The cardinal said the Vatican-approved U.S. programs are "a real success story" that should serve as a model for other bishops' conferences as well as for public schools and organizations that work with children.

The U.S. bishops took "very concrete action" and "I think that the United States can rightly offer a model," he said.

He said that while sex abuse occurs in other environments, members of the Church "should hold ourselves to a higher standard, in the sense that this is not something that one would have expected" because a priest is ordained to be a good shepherd of his flock."

Concerning the recent resignation of bishops over their handling of sex abuse cases, Cardinal Levada said he would not be surprised if there were more resignations to follow. He said the standard by which bishops are expected to address clerical sex abuse is "not new, but it's being applied more rigorously than in the past."

"I will look forward to helping my brother bishops around the world see what can be done if you take good concrete steps, put things out on the table, make sure that you've got a program to educate your priests and screen for any problem areas as you are admitting priests and have a good program for (a) safe environment," he said.

"I think those are key things that make our people feel secure" and such procedures "should be something that can be done throughout the Church," he said.

The Vatican posted online in mid-April a summary of the Vatican's procedures for handling sex abuse allegations against priests, which were adopted in the wake of a 2001 papal document that established strict universal norms for handling such cases and placed these cases under the authority of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Almost all MSM stories about thoat layman's guide made it appear as if they were recent, instead of dating back to 2003 to make clear to bishops the key provisions of De delictis gravioribus, Cardinal Ratzinger's 2001 implementing instructions for John Paul II's motu proprio Sacramentorum Santitatis Tutela.

Cardinal Levada said publishing the summary online was done because "it seemed good to put this in writing and at least put it as guidance for bishops", as well as to answer the general public's questions about what the Church's rules were and what bishops were required to do. [What do bishops do when they receive official communications from the Vatican - especially if it has to do with doctrinal clarifications, policies and procedures applicable to the universal Church? One gets the impression that many treated the 2001 Instruction and the simplified 2003 guidelines the same way some of them have dealt with Summorum Pontificum - forget they had ever received it or deliberately ignore what they are told.]


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Note to David: Because of the CNS story on the Levada interview, I decided to move the entire post (ncluding the earlier AP story) forward, so your last post moved back one position to the preceding page.