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Today in History: Pope Benedict XVI Is Inaugurated
04/24/10
On April 24, 2005, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany was inaugurated as Pope Benedict XVI. He became the 265th pope of the Roman Catholic Church, succeeding Pope John Paul II. In the weeks preceding the fifth anniversary of Benedict’s papacy, the Vatican was embroiled in controversy surrounding its handling of an ongoing sex-abuse scandal.
The first major investigation of sexual abuse by Catholic priests was commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2004. Its Report on Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church, also known as the John Jay Report, substantiated 6,700 allegations of sexual abuse by priests between 1950 and 2002. It found that 81 percent of the victims were male, and 78 percent were between the ages of 11 and 17.
The clerical sex-abuse scandal expanded to Europe in early 2010, as hundreds of people from Ireland, Germany, and elsewhere came forward with new allegations. Reports also surfaced that Benedict, when he served as archbishop of Munich in the early 1980s, had approved therapy for a pedophile priest instead of alerting the police. The priest eventually returned to pastoral duties and was later convicted of molesting boys.
Critics called upon Benedict to more fully explain his actions in this and other cases over which he had supervisory authority. They also demanded that he take greater personal responsibility for dealing with the crisis. On April 18 the Pope responded by meeting with eight Maltese men who were abused by priests as children living in a Catholic orphanage. Benedict praised the men for coming forward and promised to do everything in his power to protect children and bring abusive priests to justice.
Read the REPORT ON SEXUAL ABUSE IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH