Don't take my word for it, this assessment comes from the highest source - the current leader of the Church. And Pope Francis does not mince his words. He has described the curia as "narcissistic" and "self-referential". This is what Joseph Ratzinger had to deal with. This was what the Pope's butler, Paolo Gabriele said he wanted to expose by photocopying and leaking all those documents.
But Gabriele said his relationship with Pope Benedict was like "father and son". So why did he act in a way that was sure to embarrass a man he was clearly close to? At a certain point he couldn't take it any more," says his lawyer Cristiana Arru, clutching her rosary beads, in only her second ever public interview.
He says he saw lies being told. He thought that the Pope was being kept in the dark regarding key events. Gabriele was found guilty of "aggravated theft" and spent three months in custody before being pardoned by the Pope. But that was not the end of it. The Church's leader set up an inquiry into the whole affair. Three Cardinals produced a page report. It was meant to be kept under lock and key, but a leading Italian daily claimed it had been briefed on its contents.
The result? More embarrassing leaks, this time with claims of a network of gay priests exerting "inappropriate influence" inside the Vatican. And last month, according to the AP, a retired Kazakh archbishop joined the chorus of those who say Benedict didn't choose to go.
In a letter to Vatican Insider last year, one of Benedict's only public statements since his resignation, he stressed again that there "is absolutely no doubt regarding the validity of my resignation.
Skip to content Site Navigation The Atlantic. Popular Latest. The Atlantic Crossword. Sign In Subscribe. Furthermore, it led to the unique situation that plays out today, with one pope Francis and a pope emeritus Benedict both gracing the grounds of the Vatican in distinct white papal vestments.
Benedict cited his advanced age and deteriorating strength as the impetus for his resignation, explaining that his condition had forced him to "recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me. However, given the events that unfolded during his tenure, which exposed the Church's difficulties in adapting to a changing world and threatened the infallible status of its leader, the non-believers could be forgiven for assuming there were other factors that drove his decision.
Upon ascending to the papacy in April , Benedict was forced to publicly confront the trauma of sexual abuse by Church clergy that had bubbled to the surface after generations of suppression. The pope was already familiar with many of the troubling details, dating back to his days as prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith under John Paul II , and as such he was well suited to lead the Church into the 21st century on this issue.
Benedict ended the service of Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, an influential Mexican priest with a long trail of accusations, and he became the first pope to meet with sexual abuse victims in Two years later, he personally apologized to more victims in a pastoral letter to Ireland.
But Benedict also became ensnared in the wide-reaching controversy that year, when he was accused of transferring a known pedophile priest during his time as archbishop of Munich in the Vatican said that a deputy was responsible for the transfer. According to The New Yorker , the Church defrocked offending priests from , but this was a crisis that had outgrown the efforts of one pope.
Underscoring the depth of the problem, the wrenching documentary Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God , about the abuse of four deaf boys in the s and the Church's attempts to bury the allegations, aired shortly before Benedict stepped down. Another issue that proved problematic for the pope was the financial entanglements of the Vatican Bank.
Again, this was something that predated Benedict's papacy, as the Vatican Bank had long permitted the use of secretive accounts that invited scrutiny for potential money laundering.
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