He was literally being called to account weeks before he died.
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Pope Benedict XVI has passed away
- Thread starter Estro Felino
- Start date
He wasn't, but I think he died in the process.
I was reading about it in various Catholic magazines but I don't have them with me; they were paper copies from Oct-Nov-Dec. He was being called to give accurate information, as what he'd said last time was apparently false. I don't remember the exact nature of this but it was about sexual abuse and it was not exactly favourable. It will have been in the Herald or Tablet.
So then you understand why my response to the news of Benedict's death is in line with my response to the news of Epstein's death.
Edit: and being asked for additional information is hardly him facing justice.
Do you know, it doesn't matter to me what he agreed with or didn't agree with. To me, it is the height of ridiculous for a whole clergy that denies itself one of the most basic elements of human life, and then, in all it's sexual disfunction, presumes to be an authority on it.
Show me the chef who won't even taste anything produced by his own kitchen, and I'll show you the chef I will never order a meal from.
We Catholics believe in an otherworldly justice.
This earthly justice doesn't exist...religiously...because the powerful victimize the weak.
He was being questioned about it, so he was hardly being left alone. He was being pulled up. At this point I'd ask what more you'd want them to do to a man who was clearly about to pass away.
I will not mourn a Pope,they and priests live unnatural lives imo,priests could marry in England before 1066 like father Beocca in the “last Kingdom”.this unnatural life they live where they are in a position of trust with children I find aborrent and that the Catholic Church has sheltered such people.
... but not actually facing justice.
He should have died in prison.
He should have been tried decades ago, sentenced, and imprisoned until death.
At this point, all we can do is not sugar-coat his memory, express regret and anger at the fact that his death means the end of an opportunity to bring him to justice, and channel this anger into motivation to bring his remaining co-conspirators - and the Church itself - to justice.
Canto 27, Paradiso by Dante Alighieri.
Saint Peter to Dante:
He who usurps upon the earth my place,
My place, my place, which vacant has become
Before the presence of the Son of God,
Has of my cemetery made a sewer
Of blood and stench, whereby the Perverse One,
Who fell from here, below there is appeased!"
Saint Peter to Dante:
He who usurps upon the earth my place,
My place, my place, which vacant has become
Before the presence of the Son of God,
Has of my cemetery made a sewer
Of blood and stench, whereby the Perverse One,
Who fell from here, below there is appeased!"
No, you don't.
"Whatsoever [a disciple] bind or loose on earth shall be bound or loosed in heaven."
Catholic doctrine says that Benedict won't face punishment for his crimes after death, either, since his confessor has absolved him.
God is the ultimate tribunal.
The God who watched and did nothing as predator priests raped children? That's the God you look to for justice?
Anyhow, what you believe personally is one thing, but Catholic doctrine does not imply that Benedict will face justice in any realm.
Subduction Zone
Veteran Member
I don't like bringing up what he did in his youth either. But sadly there were too many fails as a pope that were his problem. Being in a youth group that he was likely forced to join is just a nothing burger. Not bringing his priests to task for raping children is the opposite of that.
True, and the issue was being raised recently, when as bishop he knew of but transferred abusive priests. I can no longer find the article but it was one of the America Media periodicals.
metis
aged ecumenical anthropologist
Good book, imo.
ROME (AP) — Retired Pope Benedict XVI asked forgiveness Tuesday for any “grievous faults” in his handling of clergy sex abuse cases, but denied any personal or specific wrongdoing after an independent report criticized his actions in four cases while he was archbishop of Munich, Germany.
Benedict’s lack of a personal apology or admission of guilt immediately riled sex abuse survivors, who said his response reflected the Catholic hierarchy’s “permanent” refusal to accept responsibility for the rape and sodomy of children by priests.
Benedict, 94, was responding to a Jan. 20 report from a German law firm that had been commissioned by the German Catholic Church to look into how cases of sexual abuse were handled in the Munich archdiocese between 1945 and 2019. Benedict, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, headed the archdiocese from 1977 to 1982.
The report faulted Benedict’s handling of four cases during his time as archbishop, accusing him of misconduct for having failed to restrict the ministry of the four priests even after they had been convicted criminally. The report also faulted his predecessors and successors, estimating there had been at least 497 abuse victims over the decades and at least 235 suspected perpetrators.
The head of the German bishops conference, Limburg Bishop Georg Baetzing, had previously said that Benedict needed to respond to the report by distancing himself from his lawyers and advisers. “He must talk, and he must override his advisers and essentially say the simple sentence: ’I incurred guilt, I made mistakes and I apologize to those affected,’” Baetzing said.
But in a tweet Tuesday, Baetzing only noted that Benedict had responded.
”I am grateful to him for that and he deserves respect for it,” Baetzing wrote. The tweet didn’t address the substance of Benedict’s response.
The law firm report identified four cases in which Ratzinger was accused of misconduct in failing to act against abusers.
Two cases involved priests who offended while Ratzinger was archbishop and were punished by the German legal system but were kept in pastoral work without any limits on their ministry. A third case involved a cleric who was convicted by a court outside Germany but was put into service in Munich. The fourth case involved a convicted pedophile priest who was allowed to transfer to Munich in 1980, and was later put into ministry. In 1986, that priest received a suspended sentence for molesting a boy.
Retired pope asks pardon for abuse, but admits no wrongdoing | AP News
Benedict’s lack of a personal apology or admission of guilt immediately riled sex abuse survivors, who said his response reflected the Catholic hierarchy’s “permanent” refusal to accept responsibility for the rape and sodomy of children by priests.
Benedict, 94, was responding to a Jan. 20 report from a German law firm that had been commissioned by the German Catholic Church to look into how cases of sexual abuse were handled in the Munich archdiocese between 1945 and 2019. Benedict, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, headed the archdiocese from 1977 to 1982.
The report faulted Benedict’s handling of four cases during his time as archbishop, accusing him of misconduct for having failed to restrict the ministry of the four priests even after they had been convicted criminally. The report also faulted his predecessors and successors, estimating there had been at least 497 abuse victims over the decades and at least 235 suspected perpetrators.
The head of the German bishops conference, Limburg Bishop Georg Baetzing, had previously said that Benedict needed to respond to the report by distancing himself from his lawyers and advisers. “He must talk, and he must override his advisers and essentially say the simple sentence: ’I incurred guilt, I made mistakes and I apologize to those affected,’” Baetzing said.
But in a tweet Tuesday, Baetzing only noted that Benedict had responded.
”I am grateful to him for that and he deserves respect for it,” Baetzing wrote. The tweet didn’t address the substance of Benedict’s response.
The law firm report identified four cases in which Ratzinger was accused of misconduct in failing to act against abusers.
Two cases involved priests who offended while Ratzinger was archbishop and were punished by the German legal system but were kept in pastoral work without any limits on their ministry. A third case involved a cleric who was convicted by a court outside Germany but was put into service in Munich. The fourth case involved a convicted pedophile priest who was allowed to transfer to Munich in 1980, and was later put into ministry. In 1986, that priest received a suspended sentence for molesting a boy.
Retired pope asks pardon for abuse, but admits no wrongdoing | AP News
It really was, written on a popular level for Christians that they may understand that Jews are not being stubborn in not believing in Jesus, but that they cannot believe in him.
Forgiveness of his enabling of child abuse is not up to us; it's up to his numerous victims.
I see absolutely no reason to be lenient on someone who participated in such atrocious actions just because he wore a cloak and spoke on behalf of God or because he just died. If anything, I believe his death should be used as an occasion to ponder how people who have committed similar crimes should be brought to justice before their death.
Shadow Wolf
Certified People sTabber & Business Owner
But he also blamed the free love culture of the 60s for the sex abuse, shielded the priests from justice, and was head of what used to be called the Inquisition.