Catholic Europe: How Damaged Is the Papacy?

A string of sex-abuse scandals across Europe rocks the Catholic Church and threatens to undermine Pope Benedict XVI

  • Alessandra Benedetti / Corbis

    Pope Benedict's silence on the sexual-abuse scandal in Berlin has disappointed many Catholics in his native Germany

    (3 of 3)

    Did Benedict know about the priest's swift return to pastoral work after his therapy? The archdiocese says the decision was made by Benedict's then deputy, who has taken full responsibility. But the American priest in Rome says Ratzinger, famously a micromanager, must have known of the decision. "It's probably just a matter of time," the American says, "before it comes out that he did know more than they are saying now."

    As the scandals have multiplied, so too have calls for profound change in the priesthood. One perennial proposal dusted off in recent weeks is the abolition of celibacy among priests: commentators in Germany and Italy have suggested it may help prevent abuse. Vienna's Cardinal Christoph Schönborn has called for a thoroughgoing review of the causes of abuse, writing, "Part of it is the question of celibacy." That sort of questioning is now taking place even in Benedict's former archdiocese. "Married priests should be accepted in the Catholic Church," says Rainer Schiessler, a priest at Munich's St. Maximilian Church.

    Father, Don't Be Mum
    The Vatican argues that there's no connection between vows of celibacy and sexual deviance, and the Pope himself, a staunch conservative who recently defended celibacy as "an expression of the gift of oneself to God," is unlikely to budge on the issue.

    The more immediate question is whether Benedict can resist pressure to directly address the abuse scandals. Gibson, his biographer, says that's just not in the Pope's character: "He's not the type who opens up for self-reflection, hashing out the past and past mistakes." At best, he says, there will be an oblique reference to the Europe-wide uproar in the pastoral letter to the Irish.

    That may not be enough: in Germany and Ireland there's a growing clamor for fresh public inquiries, the kind Ratzinger opposed. In the Pope's homeland, many want him to make a public statement. On March 12, he gave a 45-minute audience to the head of Germany's Catholic Church, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch. Afterward, Zollitsch said church leaders in Germany would conduct a review of current guidelines on priests suspected of abuse and appoint a special representative to look into claims. The aim, Zollitsch said, apologizing to victims in the past, was to "uncover the truth" of priestly behavior. The Pope remained silent.

    — With reporting by Jeff Israely / Rome and Tristana Moore / Berlin

    1. 1
    2. 2
    3. 3
    4. Next Page