After watching the documentary... well, I thought it was pretty damning. It presented evidence that Ratzinger knew of specific cases, yet failed to even have even internal charges brought against some priests, because they were under the protection of the last Pope. So the scandal does go to the highest levels of the Vatican, without a doubt. It did actually go into the whole, "the Pope is god on earth" thing and explained that yes, the Pope is held above human laws and not subject to them in the eyes of the Church. One person interviewed (a human rights lawyer from Britain) suggested the best way to go about charging the Pope is in international court for human rights violations. It also explained that this is far from a new problem. The Vatican has records of child sexual abuse going back to the 4th century. In the 1960's they opened facilities to treat pedophile priests. However, they ignored all evidence (including their own psychologists) that pedophiles are going to reoffend and refused to remove their access to children. They are still doing this. Reports are starting to come in from Africa and Asia about sexual abuse by priests. My favorite stat from this documentary?? 50% of priests are not celibate (possibly just American priests, my memory is failing me). Not that 50% are having sex with children, but 50% are having sex with someone... The Vatican knows this and simply doesn't care, it's been going on for centuries.
But all of this is stuff pretty much everyone knows, if not in detail. Should the Pope and the Church be charged? Yes. But actually doing it is much trickier than it would seem.
But all of this is stuff pretty much everyone knows, if not in detail. Should the Pope and the Church be charged? Yes. But actually doing it is much trickier than it would seem.
