ROMAN CATHOLIC documents, according to a report this weekend in the New York Times, reveal that Cardinal Ratzinger – when he was head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – never asserted the authority given to the office as far back as 1922 to investigate sexual abuse cases .
For the two decades he was in charge of the Congregation, the future pope was:
Part of a culture of non-responsibility, denial, legalistic foot-dragging and outright obstruction. More than any top Vatican official other than John Paul, it was Cardinal Ratzinger who might have taken decisive action in the 1990s to prevent the scandal from metastasizing in country after country, growing to such proportions that it now threatens to consume his own papacy.
Ratzinger pictured in 1982 - Diether Endicher/Associated Press
The paper suggested that Ratzinger was inhibited from taking action by Pope John Paul, his longtime superior, who often dismissed allegations of pedophilia by priests as an attack on the church by its enemies.
This latest damning revelation comes in a week in which an Australian Catholic priest was sentenced to almost 20 years in prison for abusing boys; and Belgian police, investigating claims of child abuse by clergy, revealed that they are now probing death threats against witnesses and magistrates.
According to this report, Catholic priest John Sidney Denham, 67, was found guilty of abusing 39 boys at schools in Sydney and elsewhere in New South Wales between 1968 and 1986. He was sentenced to 19 years and 10 months after pleading guilty to a range of charges, including multiple counts of indecent assault against boys aged five to 16.
Behind bars: John Sidney Denham
Denham was found guilty of abusing 39 boys at schools in Sydney and elsewhere in New South Wales between 1968 and 1986.
In sentencing, judge Helen Syme said that the abuse had been ignored by school authorities for many years, allowing it to continue:
The offender’s actions contributed to a culture of fear and depravity, especially at the school, which allowed these disturbing offences to occur and then remain unpunished for years.
Denham will serve a minimum of 13 years and 10 months.
He said in court that he was still trying to work out why he had abused the boys. However, Judge Syme was unconvinced that he was truly remorseful.
In the wake of the tomb-raiding incident in Belgium last month, police say that they are now looking into threats to the lives of some witnesses and magistrates connected to the case.
Jean Marc Meillure, a spokesman for the public prosecutors office, confirmed that an investigation was under way.
There are some threats against certain people around the case, and the prosecutors office is investigating that.
He said the threats had been made against people who gave the authorities information or made a complaint, or against some magistrates.
The raid last month on the offices of a Church commission investigating abuse claims led to some of the country’s leading clergy being detained for nine hours.
Police took away their mobile telephones to prevent them communicating with their staff or with the Vatican.
Officers also raided the nearby home of the recently retired archbishop of Belgium, Cardinal Godfried Danneels, seizing paperwork and his computer.
Hat tip: Canada Dave, BarrieJohn and Paul Ed
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
July 4th, 2010 at 10:39 pm
Good ending for Denham. Now it’s time to round up the rest of the offenders, try them, convict them, and sentence them to a minimum of 40 years in prison. If the trail leads to Benedict, he can be tried, convicted, and sentenced,too.
July 4th, 2010 at 11:37 pm
it is time for that great harlot destruction to come at the hands of her lover
July 4th, 2010 at 11:39 pm
“Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith”, didn’t that used to be called the inquisition??
July 4th, 2010 at 11:54 pm
ZombieHunter,
Yes,His Holiness is the former Grand Inquisitor,what’s in a name?
July 5th, 2010 at 12:07 am
Nice one on both counts, and the death threats add a neat little touch showing how the catholic’s are just as bad as any islamic or protestant fundie
July 5th, 2010 at 12:20 am
Catholic clergy are a bunch of nonces. What right-minded people would associate themselves with that? If we had one in our family they’d be disowned.
Ratty is at least guilty of failing to report abuse to the proper authorities in whichever country it occurred. Was he ever a participant? This all unfolds like a storyline in a soap, and we know there’s more to come. I chide myself each time I start enjoying it and remember the innocent lives ruined. Sometimes I feel numb when I watch a victim weep as they describe the abuse suffered. What I find particularly harrowing are accounts by middle-aged people who still have issues decades after they were “blessed”. Perhaps Benny would consider his position after viewing a few DVDs of this. It can move me to tears.
That’s an awful pic of Ratty by the way. He looks like a beast kept in a dungeon and realeased for a Hitler Youth reunion bash.
“Ze Untermensch must be repulsed!”
July 5th, 2010 at 4:12 am
“He looks like a beast kept in a dungeon and realeased for a Hitler Youth reunion bash.”
Hitler came to my mind, too, when I saw it. Evil. Pure evil.
July 5th, 2010 at 8:16 am
In decades to come, when the Roman Church has collapsed and its wealth redistributed amongst its victims and the needy of this world, our descendants will look back on these years and ask, “Why did they not Arrest the Pope?”
There needs to be a full and internationally coordinated investigation of the activities of this organization followed by prosecutions for conspiracy.
July 5th, 2010 at 8:27 am
Actually, when I looked at that picture of Nazinger, the first thing that I thought of was John Demjanjuk:
http://www.topnews.in/german-l.....ed-2147673
How very apposite.
July 5th, 2010 at 8:36 am
I just hope that the Belgian investigation is the first of many, tackling them the way you would any criminal gang.
July 5th, 2010 at 9:16 am
The whole stinking vile abuse promoting edifice that is the Catholic Church should be shut down, all it’s priests/cardinals/bishops sacked without pension, the properties/artworks/investments sold off and given to the poor and abused.
Only then would they be able to say they’ve done some good in the world.
Ratzi the Nazi is a vile odious dress-wearing prada-shoe wearing twisted nasty lisping old homophobic twat…. he reminds me of the Kiddycatcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang..
July 5th, 2010 at 11:53 am
For years no one had the balls to take on the mafia, and now it is the turn of the RCC, whose MO has striking similarities to that of the aforementioned organization!
July 5th, 2010 at 12:08 pm
Are we still going to be shafted as UK tax payers to fund Ratzinger’s so called State Visit? If this goes ahead, funded by our taxes, it makes a nonsense of claims that we must suffer severe cuts in services elsewhere. Cancel this nonsense NOW! We do not want him here.
July 5th, 2010 at 12:24 pm
@ Broga I agree, they should cancel his visit here – although I do quite fancy the idea of Dawkins and Hitchens trying to arrest the old scoundrel in full public and media view.
July 5th, 2010 at 2:17 pm
Christopher Hitchens has oesophageal cancer. I am surprised that little has been said about that in the British press.
http://www.secularnewsdaily.co.....motherapy/
July 5th, 2010 at 2:21 pm
@Marcus. Yes, it is a matter of balance between cancellation and arrest. I prefer cancellation because the UK, with its small RC population, has a small number of influential sickos running the BBC, in politics and the media who whine away implying support for Ratzinger which far exceeds what the views of the population reflect. They are, of course, ready to empty our pockets to pay for his visit. Nothing so silly as paying themselves. Must amuse them robbing all the secularists whom they treat with contempt.
What confronts us here is shameful. Dishonest and vile propaganda in the service of this man; lies about the true nature of his supposed diplomatic immunity and a hard faced, bloody minded determination to defy the rest of us.
July 5th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
News24 is saying that estimates for this visit, excluding policing, will be at least 10 million. That’s bad enough but when they say the Policing has to come out of ordinary police funds, which are being massively cut, then I think it’s an absolute piss take. I wish I knew what Patten’s email address is.
July 5th, 2010 at 5:03 pm
@AngieRS
Chris Patten is chancellor of the Univ. Oxford. What a coincidence, Ratty’s old boss was Chancellor too. Email is below but I assume most messages won’t get past his PA.
christopher.patten@balliol.ox.ac.uk
July 5th, 2010 at 5:27 pm
Thanks, Broadsword. I think you’re right. He may have an HoL address. I’ve also just been to cleggys website and put an idea up there about stopping the visit. Tag is papal visit. Think I put it in the wrong bit though, duh!
July 5th, 2010 at 7:00 pm
Petursey, like you I would love to see the whole rotten edifice implode but I don’t expect to see it in my lifetime.
Seeing that a stage production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is regularly on tour, Ratty could apply for the part of the child catcher should the time come when he has to get a real job, let’s face it he would be terrifyingly good at it and wouldn’t even require make up.
July 5th, 2010 at 7:10 pm
@Stony
I think Ratty would make a good Fagin too.
July 5th, 2010 at 7:53 pm
I heard on the Radio 4 News that the cost had increased to £12 million. (In your dreams.) However, they addly sweetly, “That does not include policing.” Of course, it doesn’t and I guess it does not include much else. Then some arse licker adds, “This is a very special four day visit.”
No mention of his deceits, his cover-ups, his disastrous effects on the environment with his insane demands that there be no population controls, his vicious insistence that even women made pregnant by his raping priests must be denied abortion etc…………. All sweetness and light.
July 5th, 2010 at 10:19 pm
Of the Pope or Richard Dawkins. Which one would have the greater chance of being arrested, if the both arrived in the UK on the same plane?
Sadly, Hitch is ill and RD I’m sure has better things to do with his time. If you fancy spending a night in jail, you could run through the streets carrying a large, cardboard cut out, photo of RD equipped with handcuffs.