Pope Benedict XVI is being accused by the New York Times of covering up a sex abuse scandal when he was a cardinal in the 1990s. The affair involved a priest in the United States who is alleged to have abused as many as 200 deaf boys.
Despite US bishops repeatedly warning that the case could seriously embarrass the church, the priest was not dismissed from his job. The New York Times bases its report on correspondence between US bishops and the then Cardinal Ratzinger, who went on to become pope.
One of his jobs in the Vatican at the time was to decide the fate of priests accused of abuse. The newspaper reports that the letters show there was a heated discussion in the Vatican about the American priest. However, it was finally decided that the church had to be protected from the scandal becoming public.
Last month Radio Netherlands Worldwide working together with the NRC Handelsblad newspaper revealed the first cases of child sex abuse within the Dutch Catholic Church. Since then the church authorities here have received over 1,000 claims of abuse in Catholic institutions throughout the Netherlands. The claims go back to the fifties, sixties and seventies.
On Dutch TV earlier this week the former head of the Catholic church in the Netherlands, Cardinal Ad Simonis, said the top of the church was not aware of the abuse.
Controversially he used a German phrase, "wir haben es nicht gewusst" and added "I know that is a very dangerous remark and heavily loaded, but it's true."
The remark in question, meaning "we didn't know about it" was used in the wake of World War II to deny knowledge of the Holocaust.
Dutch abuse scandal latest details.
Related Articles:
Pope May Be at Crossroads on Abuse, Forced to Reconcile Policy and Words
Did the Pope shield paedophile priest? 'Cover-up' over curate's abuse of 200 deaf children
Vatican attacks media on 'Pope role' in sex abuse cases
Vatican denies Pope covered up sex abuse
Church sex abuse: Holocaust denial
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