[sinkspur]

Q: This past year has been difficult for Catholics, given the space dedicated by the media to scandals attributed to priests. There is talk of a campaign against the Church. What do you think?

Cardinal Ratzinger: In the Church, priests also are sinners. But I am personally convinced that the constant presence in the press of the sins of Catholic priests, especially in the United States, is a planned campaign, as the percentage of these offenses among priests is not higher than in other categories, and perhaps it is even lower.

In the United States, there is constant news on this topic, but less than 1% of priests are guilty of acts of this type. The constant presence of these news items does not correspond to the objectivity of the information nor to the statistical objectivity of the facts. Therefore, one comes to the conclusion that it is intentional, manipulated, that there is a desire to discredit the Church. It is a logical and well-founded conclusion.

Source.

Actually, it was 4% of priests, and over 11,000 different young people were abused, according to the US Bishops Clergy Review Board.

Like JPII, Ratzinger's first instinct is to protect the institutional Church.

[Wiseghy]

I was a seminarian in the 80's, and I can tell you that the problem with abuse centered more on simple naivete' in regards to serial abusers and the pathology of their condition.

Treating this problem through the sin-forgiveness paradigm was an obvious and grievous mistake in retrospect. In their defense, I highly doubt US church leaders had much good advice on this problem, otherwise, I'm sure they would have dealt with it differently. The church has paid dearly for this, and has learned its lesson.

[B Knotts]

The liberal Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga, on the other hand, blamed the Jews.

[Antoninus]

Actually, it was 4% of priests, and over 11,000 different young people were abused, according to the US Bishops Clergy Review Board.

As usual, you're being disingenuous. This interview, if I remember correctly, came out way before the Review Board report when the true extent of the abuse could only be guessed at.

[Proud2BAmerican]

Nah, he's just being realistic about it and putting it in proper perspective. Bulk of the problem was chicken-hawking gay priests, not really pedophiles, per se. He's got an accurate bead on the sick fascination of the press in gleefully reporting every sin of the Catholic Church. The press has the right address of the institution they need to go after to really get the world inescapably hurtling toward total secularism.

[SuziQ]

Like JPII, Ratzinger's first instinct is to protect the institutional Church.

That's always been his most important job. It is the job of the law enforcement officials to put the abusers in jail. They should have done that years ago. Unfortunately, because of political considerations in some instances, and personal considerations of the parents in others, the priests were allowed to stay free.

The Church erred in allowing the men to stay in their ministries for as long as they did; they were WAY too pastoral in my opinion, but Ratzinger was absolutely right in his statement that the media blew the story out of all proportion to the number of abusers and victims, almost never mentioning that their numbers covered over 50 years. There are other groups and institutions that had similar or worse problems, but the media made it seem like the Church was the ONLY group doing it.

I believe the Church in the US has been changing in it's approach to this problem; some Dioceses had made changes even before the news broke in Boston. Pope Benedict XVI may not make any speeches on the subject, but I believe he's been working behind the scenes making sure it doesn't happen again.

[Blue_Ridge_Mtn_Geek]

Cardinal Ratzinger: In the Church, priests also are sinners. But I am personally convinced that the constant presence in the press of the sins of Catholic priests, especially in the United States, is a planned campaign, as the percentage of these offenses among priests is not higher than in other categories, and perhaps it is even lower.

In the United States, there is constant news on this topic, but less than 1% of priests are guilty of acts of this type. The constant presence of these news items does not correspond to the objectivity of the information nor to the statistical objectivity of the facts. Therefore, one comes to the conclusion that it is intentional, manipulated, that there is a desire to discredit the Church. It is a logical and well-founded conclusion.

Source.

Actually, it was 4% of priests, and over 11,000 different young people were abused, according to the US Bishops Clergy Review Board.

Like JPII, Ratzinger's first instinct is to protect the institutional Church.

---

No doubt; the differences in the percents may be due to use of different bases. This would need to be checked.

In the meantime, perverted clergy are hardly an exclusive problem of the RC church. For example, the case of Baptist preacher Jack Hyles, and the many like-bent preachers his organizations have produced over the years:

http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/exposes/hyles/

Sin in the Camp of Fundamentalists (1/94)

http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/exposes/hyles/general.htm
Excerpt:

- Besides Hyles own church and schools being scandalized with immorality and pedophilic activity (numerous FBCH men have been charged or convicted of child molestation), Hyles spawned a number of "ministries" (there are approximately 200 independent Baptist churches nationwide that hold Hyles and his teachings in high regard) that have been scandalized in the same manner. For example, seven Hyles-affiliated churches from 1984-1993 have been rocked by child molestation scandals (San Diego; North Sharon, MI; Petersburg, VA; Anniston, AL; Monroe, LA; Beaumont, TX; and Hyles own church in Hammond). From 5/16/93-5/20/93, Detroit television station WJBK-TV aired a five-part exposé on Hyles and various associated ministries. Following are the "low-lights" of that series:

(a) A.V. Ballenger, a deacon and bus route driver at Hyles' First Baptist Church Hammond, was convicted in March of 1993 (and sentenced in July of 1993 to five years in jail) of molesting a seven year old girl. (This crime occurred in a Sunday School room of the church! Incredibly, after conviction, but prior to sentencing, Ballenger was allowed to resume his FBCH bus route!) The highlight of the sentencing hearing was the testimony of three young women. Each was molested by Ballenger when she was a child, and in each case, before age seven. Jack Hyles, who testified on Ballenger's behalf, defiantly declared the outcome of the trial null and void, claiming that the courts had no jurisdiction in this matter. Hyles told the girl's parents, "Deacon Ballenger just likes little girls."

(b) Hyles' protégé Earl Reeves, pastor of Lighthouse Baptist Temple in San Diego, served eight years in prison for molesting young women and grade school girls from his congregation.

(c) Hyles-Anderson Bible College grad and Calvary Park Baptist Church's (Petersburg, VA) youth pastor, Jeffrey Jerrell, pleaded guilty to having sex with eleven young girls from his congregation.

(d) David Hyles, Jack Hyles' son, had affairs with at least 19 different women at Miller Road Baptist Church in Garland, Texas, during the time he pastored there. (He was dismissed when a janitor found photos of Hyles having sex with a deacon's daughter.) Back in the Chicago area (Bolingbrook, IL), and after David's divorce from his wife, David was cohabitating with Brenda Stevens. Brenda posed for pornographic pictures in Adam and Chicago Swingers magazines (in an advertisement for group sex) during the time she and David were living together. After David married Brenda, Brenda's 17-month-old son by a previous marriage was found battered and dead at the Hyles' home. The police still consider the case a murder and continue to view David and Brenda as prime suspects. At the coroner's inquest in 1985, Brenda was a no-show, while David Hyles pleaded the Fifth Amendment. [David and Brenda Hyles later conceived a son, and named him Jack David Hyles. In March of 1999, Brenda Hyles ran him over with the family car, killing the 5-year-old boy. Brenda claimed that Jack David had fallen out of the car and she could not avoid running over him (3/25/99, St. Petersburg Times).] In June of 2003, it was reported that David Hyles had been kicked out of another church (Pinellas Park Baptist in the Florida Keys), over a 9-woman sex scandal this time. Nevertheless, he still keeps a full itinerary of speaking to churches on Sunday School growth.

[AliVeritas]

Didn't see your source document, could you post a specific link besides the Zenit page?

[RobbyS]

And most of it occured furing the ten years of "enthusiasm" that following Vatican II. The spirit that filled them was not necessarily holy. Reminding me of the antinomian behavior of the anabaptists during the Protestant Reformation.