Just as the archdiocese of Boston was contemplating filing for bankruptcy last week to cope with the estimated 450 civil sex-abuse suits against it, two top Vatican officials were pointing fingers elsewhere. German Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, perhaps the most powerful policymaker in Rome besides the Pope, told a Catholic news wire that the U.S. sex-abuse scandal was an "intentional, manipulated...desire to discredit the church" by the media. The conservative Ratzinger offered a virtual Vatican seal of approval for recent comments by two Latin American Cardinals--each considered possible papal successors--who also blamed the pedophilia crisis on the American press. Another sign of...
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