{"id":309,"date":"2010-03-28T19:50:27","date_gmt":"2010-03-29T01:50:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/?p=309"},"modified":"2010-03-28T19:50:27","modified_gmt":"2010-03-29T01:50:27","slug":"schonborn-ratzinger-and-groer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/schonborn-ratzinger-and-groer-309.htm","title":{"rendered":"Sch\u00f6nborn, Ratzinger, and Gro\u00ebr"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now that he has made a public statement, I feel I can now reveal what Cardinal Sch\u00f6nborn told me two years ago.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span>I know him a little, and I sent him my book Sacrilege: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church.<\/em> We met in San Diego, and I asked him what he thought of the book, especially the section on his predecessor, Cardinal Gro<\/span>\u00eb<\/span>r. I wondered whether I had understood all the German sources correctly. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Sch\u00f6nborn said the situation was worse than I knew. \u00a0<\/span>Gro<\/span>\u00eb<\/span>r had molested almost every student he had come into contact with for decades. After Gro\u00ebr was accused of this abuse, John Paul II continued to receive Gro<\/span>\u00eb<\/span>r socially in the Vatican, and tens of thousands of Austrians were resigning from the Church in protest.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Sch\u00f6nborn in person pleaded with John Paul to make a statement about Gro<\/span>\u00eb<\/span><\/span>r. John Paul replied that he would like to, but \u201cthey won\u2019t let me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u201d? I asked Sch\u00f6nborn. Who are \u201cthey\u201d who can tell the pope what to do or not to do? Sch\u00f6nborn said that John Paul would not explain. \u00a0<\/span>I gathered from the context it must be part of the curia.
\n\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Sch\u00f6nborn has now explained<\/a>:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Vienna’s Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, in defense of the pope, told ORF Austrian television on Sunday that Benedict wanted a full probe when former Vienna Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer was removed in 1995 for alleged sexual abuse of a boy. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But other Curia officials persuaded then Pope John Paul<\/span><\/span> that the media had exaggerated the case and an inquiry would only create more bad publicity. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“He told me, ‘the other side won’,” Schoenborn said. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This other side, from all indications, was Cardinal Sodano, the Secretary of State, or at least some influential members of that Secretariat.. Ratzinger did not report directly to the pope, but to the Secretary of State. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Kathweb<\/a> reports:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Der heutige Papst habe sich in der Causa Groer (1995) energisch f\u00fcr eine vatikanische Untersuchungskommission eingesetzt. Diese sei aber von der “anderen Partei” im Vatikan verhindert worden, berichtete Sch\u00f6nborn: “Ratzinger hat mir damals traurig gesagt: Die andere Partei hat sich durchgesetzt.”\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Bei den Kommissions-Gegner habe es sich 1995 um die – im Staatssekretariat angesiedelte – “diplomatische Schiene” gehandelt.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Ratzinger sei auch der Verantwortliche f\u00fcr die Errichtung des “Gerichtshofs” in der Glaubenskongregation zur Behandlung der “delicta graviora” gewesen: “Ihm vorzuwerfen, er sei ein Vertuscher, ist deshalb nicht wahr.”<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Ratzinger made a mistake in his handling of the Hullermann case; from all indications, he wanted to act against other abusers but was limited by John Paul and Sodano. No doubt he feels it a terrible injustice to be criticized for others\u2019 failures. It would be awkward for Benedict to blame others, even if they are to blame. He should set up an independent commission to investigate what really happened and to bring out the truth about who was blocking the investigations of abusers.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But of course if John Paul II failed, the next question would be. \u201cWhy on earth are you trying to canonize him as a saint?\u201d And if Sodano is the one responsible, why is he still a cardinal?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now that he has made a public statement, I feel I can now reveal what Cardinal Sch\u00f6nborn told me two years ago. \u00a0I know him a little, and I sent him my book Sacrilege: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church. We met in San Diego, and I asked him what he thought of the book, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,63],"tags":[363,354,364],"class_list":["post-309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-clergy-sex-abuse","category-vatican","tag-groer","tag-ratzinger","tag-schonborn","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}