Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI rarely got credit for having turned the Vatican around on clergy sexual abuse, but as cardinal and pope, he pushed through revolutionary changes to church law to make it easier to defrock predator priests. He was the first pontiff to meet with abuse survivors. And he reversed his revered predecessor on the most egregious case of the 20th century Catholic Church, finally taking action against a serial abuser who was adored by St. John Paul II’s inner circle. Even so, much more needed to be done by the church hierarchy. In the years after Benedict’s 2013 resignation, the scandal he believed encompassed only a few mostly English-speaking countries had spread to all parts of the globe.
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI rarely got credit for having turned the Vatican around on clergy sexual abuse, but as cardinal and pope, he pushed through revolutionary changes to church law to make it easier to defrock predator priests
Following Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s death Saturday, abuse survivors and their advocates made clear they did not feel his record was anything to praise.
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is rightly credited with having been one of the 20th century s most prolific Catholic theologians, a teacher-pope who preached the faith via volumes of books, sermons and speeches. But he rarely got credit for another important aspect of his legacy: having done more than anyone before him to turn the Vatican around on clergy sexual abuse.