My column this week is very critical of the leadership structure of Catholicism but should not be construed as an attack on the character or faith of followers of Catholicism.
In the past decade or so, punch lines have been legion at scandals involving the Catholic Church and priests committing child molestation.
While it's resulted in bad publicity for them and great fodder for late night comics, little has changed in the way of accountability or punishment.
This past Saturday was explosive in that regard. The New York Times ran three stories detailing three different cover-ups that could, and should, envelop not only the priests involved, but Pope Benedict XVI himself.
Start in Munich, Germany. In 1980, the Rev. Peter Hullermann was transferred into Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's diocese for therapy to cure him of his pedophiliac tendencies. Only a few days later, Hullermann was allowed to resume his pastoral duties.
After molesting boys in another parish, he was convicted of child molestation. Ratzinger — now known as Pope Benedict XVI — claimed to have no knowledge of the decision, even though it was his own diocese.
Another story involved a close personal friend of the last pope, Pope John Paul II. The Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado of Mexico was the founder of the Legionaries of Christ, a Catholic order. Father Maciel died in 2008, and this past Friday, the order acknowledged that he had molested seminarians for over six decades and that he had fathered several children, violating the Catholic's rule of celibacy for priests.
An investigation of Father Maciel had been ordered reopened in 2004, but he was never defrocked. Who ordered and was in charge of the investigation? Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.
The third New York Times story originated in Milwaukee. The Rev. Lawrence Murphy worked at a school for the deaf, starting in 1950.
For decades, men molested as boys told priests, police departments, three Milwaukee archbishops and the district attorney that the Rev. Murphy was molesting students. They used sign language. They signed affidavits. They used graphic gestures. Nothing happened and when Father Murphy died in 1998, he was still a priest.
Last week, they discovered that in 1996, Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland sent several letters to a cardinal at the Vatican about the need for a "healing response from the church" for the deaf children involved. Who was the cardinal that sat on his hands? Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI.
While Ratzinger/Benedict XVI was willing to sit on his hands at the actions of child abusers and pedophiles, he did eventually draw the line. As yet another story from the weekend tells, he punished a priest in 1981 for holding Mass at a peace demonstration and the priest eventually left the priesthood entirely.
Think about that. Child molestation is no big deal, but participating in a peace demonstration is beyond the pale. To sum up the article, "As archbishop, Benedict expended more energy pursuing theological dissidents than sexual predators."
Despite all of this, leaders of the church have been very harsh in their condemnation. The target, however, is not those who committed the abuse or Ratzinger/Benedict for enabling it, but the New York Times for running the stories.
As the Atlantic's Andrew Sullivan put it, "What matters is the reputation of the church, not the raped psyches and violated souls of children."
I'm not an expert in psychology, so I won't attempt a guess at why events such as these are a problem with the Catholic Church — the New York Times point out that cover-ups have been a regular occurrence for decades. What should go without saying, however, is that this should not be acceptable.
While I'm not calling into question the character of practicing Catholics all over the world, I find it infuriating that the head of a major world religion is so willing to overlook such disgusting acts.
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