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world news Diasabra 22 Januari 2022

Pope vows justice for abuse victims after Ratzinger faulted

(AP) — Pope Francis was continuing to discern ing by church officials aris- days. Benedict’s longtime
vowed Friday to provide the way forward in the abuse ing from Thursday’s report. secretary, Monsignor Georg
justice to victims of clergy scandal, which has discred- Spokesperson Anne Leiding Gaenswein, also said the re-
sexual abuse and German ited the Catholic hierarchy told German news agency tired pope hadn’t yet read the
authorities called for fur- at the Vatican and around the dpa that the cases were re- report, but would.
ther investigation after an world. ferred to them by the law
independent audit fault- firm that prepared the report Benedict, who provided in-
ed retired Pope Benedict “The church, with God’s last year. formation to the report’s
XVI for having botched help, is carrying out the com- authors, expressed his upset
four cases of abuse when mitment with firm determi- If any suspicion of “possible and shame about the scandal,
he was archbishop of Mu- nation to do justice to the criminally relevant behavior” Gaenswein said.
nich, Germany. victims of abuse by its mem- emerges from the examina-
bers, applying with particu- tion, Leiding said, prosecu- Benedict’s legacy as pope
The fallout from the report lar attention and rigor to the tors will seek further details had already been colored
continued to reverberate Fri- canonical legislation envis- from the law firm. by the 2010 global eruption
day as church officials digest- aged,” Francis told the group. of the clergy abuse scandal,
ed the findings that a pope The law firm said on Thurs- even though as a cardinal Vatican under St. John Paul
credited with having turned He recalled he had recently day that the cases involve liv- he was responsible for turn- II strongly resisted letting
the Vatican around on the updated the Vatican norms to ing officials who are still in ing around the Vatican’s ap- priests leave active ministry,
abuse issue had in fact mis- handle abuse cases to make office. proach to the issue. even if they were convicted
handled cases earlier in his them more effective. rapists.
career. Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Ratzinger took the then-rev-
“This alone cannot be enough spokeswoman, Christiane olutionary decision in 2001 A fellow German and one of
One day after the report’s to stem the phenomenon, but Hoffmann, said Friday it was to assume responsibility for Ratzinger’s successors at the
release, Francis met with the it is a necessary step to restore “urgent that these matters be processing abuse cases after Congregation for the Doc-
members of the Vatican of- justice, to repair scandal and fully investigated and a com- he realized bishops around trine of the Faith, Cardinal
fice that handles sex abuse reform the offender,” he said. prehensive reappraisal be car- the world weren’t punishing Gerhard Mueller, dismissed
cases in a previously sched- ried out.” abusers but were just mov- the report’s findings, suggest-
uled audience. The Congre- The German report prepared ing them from parish to par- ing they were ideologically
gation for the Doctrine of the by an independent law firm The report makes “the ex- ish and enabling them to rape motivated to attack Ratzinger
Faith was headed by Cardinal found that Ratzinger mis- tent of the abuse and breach again. and saying if there were er-
Joseph Ratzinger for nearly handled four cases of abusive of duty by church dignitaries rors in the handling of cases,
a quarter-century before he clergy during his tenure as shockingly clear.” she said. That decision, however, Ratzinger didn’t know about
became Pope Benedict XVI archbishop. Until Thursday, came after Ratzinger was still them.
in 2005. only one known case impli- “It is crucial that confidence sitting on cases at the Vati-
cating his Munich tenure had in the process of coming can. Years ago documenta- He noted that in the 1970s
In his speech, Francis didn’t been made public; the report to terms with the past is tion emerged showing that and 1980s, neither the church
refer to the findings of the found that the church’s claim strengthened in the Catho- Ratzinger in 1985 dithered nor society at large handled
report into how the Munich that Ratzinger was unaware lic Church and by individual on a case of a convicted child child sex abusers properly.
archdiocese handled abuse of the priest’s background dignitaries,” she said. molester in California who
cases from 1945 and 2019. lacked credibility. asked to be defrocked, delay- “It was thought that therapy
Ratzinger was archbishop The Vatican didn’t imme- ing any action for two years. could resolve the problem.
there from 1977-1982. Prosecutors in Munich said diately comment on the re- Today we know that this is
Friday they are examining 42 port, saying it would read The case of the Rev. Stephen useless for these criminals,”
But Francis said the church cases of possible wrongdo- it carefully in the coming Kiesle was evidence that the he said.

Has rule-breaker Boris Johnson met his match in ‘partygate’?

(AP) — For Boris Johnson, a cheerful rule-breaker — the 350 million pounds a week
facts have always been At least until now. Revela- naughty schoolboy of British As a young journalist at The that could instead be spent
flexible. tions that the prime minister politics — gave him a rare Times of London, he fab- on the U.K.’s health service.
and his staff partied while ability to connect with vot- ricated a quote about King
The British prime minis- Britain was under corona- ers. Now, many are having Edward II from a historian, Johnson suffered an early
ter’s career is littered with virus restrictions have pro- second thoughts. who also happened to be his political setback when then-
doctored quotes, tall tales, voked public outrage and godfather. He was fired, but Conservative leader Michael
exaggerations and mistruths. prompted many in the Con- Johnson has often been able that didn’t stop him becom- Howard fired him in 2004
When called out, he has gen- servative Party to consider to talk his way out of crises. ing Brussels correspondent for lying about an extramari-
erally offered an apologetic dumping their leader. The Oxford-educated politi- for the Daily Telegraph in tal affair. A month earlier,
shrug or a guilty grin, and cian has used words to cre- the early 1990s, filing exag- Howard forced him to apolo-
moved on. Plenty of people The Conservatives picked ate the image of a rumpled gerated stories of EU waste gize to the city of Liverpool
were willing to forgive him. Johnson because his image as jokester with a mop of blond and red tape. Those “Euro- for accusing its residents of
hair who doesn’t take him- myths” about one-size-fits- “wallowing” in victimhood.
self too seriously. Quips and all condoms and plans to ban
jokes tumble out of him, “bendy bananas” helped turn Opponents long argued that
sometimes in Latin or an- British opinion against the Johnson’s loose grasp of facts
cient Greek. bloc, and ultimately led to — and history of glibly of-
Johnson becoming the Brexit fensive comments — made
Many people thought he was champion who would years him unfit for high office.
too lightweight ever to be- later bring the U.K. out of Over the years Johnson has
come prime minister, and the EU. called Papua New Guineans
Johnson didn’t contradict cannibals, claimed that “part
them. He disguised his ambi- Brexit was won in a 2016 Kenyan” Barack Obama had
tion with jokes, saying he had referendum campaign that an ancestral dislike of Britain
as much chance of becoming contained many questionable and compared Muslim wom-
prime minister as of “finding claims, notably the allegation en who wear face-covering
Elvis on Mars” or being “re- — often repeated by Johnson veils to “letter boxes.”
incarnated as an olive.” — that Britain gave the EU