Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone has said he was tired of hearing about an alleged abuse cover-up by himself and Pope Benedict adding that they have produced documentary evidence to the contrary. “Basta, basta on this subject,” exclaimed Bertone, currently secretary of state, who was also No.2 to the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger during the future pope’s 14-year tenure at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which deals with abuse cases, ANSA reports.
He was responding to a fresh charge from German weekly Die Welt, which echoed the New York Times in claiming the pair refused to heed appeals from Milwaukee bishops in the late 1990s about the abuse committed by Fr Lawrence Murphy at a Wisconsin school for deaf children between 1950 and 1974.
“It’s not true, we have produced documentary evidence of the contrary,” Bertone said, reiterating that the Murphy case was only brought to his then office’s attention in 1998, a few months before the priest died.
Meanwhile, Vatican Radio on Tuesday said “there are those who fear that the media campaign of anti-Catholic hate may degenerate,” citing among “the first worrying signs” an attack by a mentally unstable man on a German bishop; anti-Catholic slogans daubed on a church near Viterbo; and attempts by “several groups and individuals” to disrupt Easter services across Europe.
The broadcaster recalled that the first Christians were accused of terrible crimes and lynched.
It praised the Wall Street Journal for being among the few media outlets who have noted that “Cardinal Ratzinger did more than anyone else” to force paedophile priests “to answer for what they had done”.
The Vatican has insisted that, starting with new abuse guidelines as doctrinal chief in 2001, Benedict has done all he can to rid the Church of “filth” he referred to after he became pope in 2005.
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