Retired Pope Benedict blames Catholic Church’s child abuse scandal on 1960s sexual revolution and ‘homosexual cliques’ in ‘catastrophically irresponsible’ essay
- Piece published in Catholic News Agency and other conservative media also points to church laws that protected priests
- Analysis comes in conflict with efforts by Pope Francis to lead church out of sex abuse crisis
Pope Benedict XVI has ventured out of retirement to publish an essay blaming the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal on the sexual revolution of the 1960s and church laws that protected priests.
His analysis was immediately criticised as “catastrophically irresponsible” – a conflict with efforts by his successor, Pope Francis, to lead the church out of its crisis.
“Why did paedophilia reach such proportions? Ultimately, the reason is the absence of God,” Benedict wrote, in the 6,000-word essay published Thursday in the German monthly Klerusblatt, the Catholic News Agency and other conservative media.
Benedict traced the start of the crisis to the 1960s, citing the appearance of sex in films in his native Bavaria and the formation of “homosexual cliques” in seminaries “which acted more or less openly and significantly changed the climate”. He also attributed it to failures in moral theology in that era.
For a retired pope to try to undo the critical work of a sitting pope and on such a crucial issue seems … bad
“Perhaps it is worth mentioning that in not a few seminaries, students caught reading my books were considered unsuitable for the priesthood,” the conservative theologian wrote. “My books were hidden away, like bad literature, and only read under the desk.”
