After a meeting with victims in Erfurt, a member of SNAP criticizes Benedict XVI, accusing him of being tough on theological dissent and tolerant with those who cover the pedophiles.Yesterday Benedict XVI met in the seminary of Erfurt with some victims of sexual abuse by priests.
The group, said Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, was composed of two women and three men from all over Germany.
The pope was "moved and deeply shocked by the victims' suffering" and expressed "his deep compassion and his deep regret for all that has been committed against them and their families.
He assured those present that those in positions of responsibility in the Church are very concerned with thoroughly addressing all the crimes of abuse, and are seeking to promote effective measures for the protection of children and young people."
Once again, therefore – as he has already done on many other trips, more than once garnering internal resistance from those frustrated by talk about abuses every time the Pope travels abroad – Benedict XVI wanted to set an example.
The Pope knows that canonical laws (which at his behest have become very strict, following the trend of special legislation) are not enough if they are not accompanied by a change of mentality. And mentality is not changed by changing the laws.
Approaching the victims, listening to them, crying with them, Ratzinger shows to the whole Church and especially to the bishops how to behave towards these abused persons and their families.
As one will recall at the beginning of the trip, Benedict XVI, in response to a reporter's question, said something dramatic, terrible in itself, which I cannot remember ever having been uttered by a Pope: "I can understand that, in the face of crimes like child abuse committed by priests, if the victims are people close to you, someone could say: this is not my church, the Church is a force for humanizing and for setting ethical standards and if they themselves do the opposite, I can no longer be with this Church."
Faced with this testimony by the pope, and before the reality of the tightening of canon law to allow the issue to be fought more effectively, the comments of Emmanuel Henckens appear out of tune.
Heckens was abused for five years by two priests and is a Belgian member of SNAP (Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, an association that wants to bring Pope Ratzinger before the International Criminal Court in The Hague), who said "the papal visit will make only a handful of injured people feel better for awhile."
Henckens said the "courage" and "compassion" of the victims are "to be applauded," but that the meeting with the Pope "will do nothing to stop priests from molesting children or bishops from hiding their crimes."
Because the meeting "will be another nice gesture but, ultimately, a useless one from a man who could easily protect children but refuses to do so, and who acts as "God's Rottweiler" with dissident theologians, but is a gentle kitten with accomplice bishops and molester priests".
An examination with fewer prejudices would come to the conclusion that Ratzinger does not behave like "God's Rottweiler" with dissenters (just look at what goes on in Germany and Austria), but above all he is not at all «gentle» with accomplice bishops and molester priests: priests' reduction to the lay state, bishops' resignations, the crackdown of canonical norms, and Benedict XVI's courageous example all testify to another story.
It is truly unfortunate that some of the leaders of victims' associations, aiming at the wrong target entirely, still haven't realized it.