Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Will Benedict XVI's Abdication Lead to Criminal Prosecutions?

While much speculation runs rampant about who will succeed Pope Benedict XVI following his abdication - the first in over 600 years - in sex abuse survivor circles the speculation focuses on something very different: now that Benedict will soon no longer be a "head of state" will he be reachable under criminal law statutes for his role in the enabling and protection of predatory priests and obstruction of justice?  It's an interesting question and which I for one is answered in the affirmative.  An article in The Guardian looks at the issue.  Here are highlights:

Victims of the child sex abuse crisis that has engulfed the Catholic church during Pope Benedict's tenure welcomed his unexpected resignation on Monday, amid speculation over what prompted his departure.

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (Snap), an organisation of 12,000 members worldwide, claim Benedict is personally responsible for widespread abuse within the church because he chose to protect its reputation over the safety of children. US lawyers who are currently suing the pontiff and other high-ranking Holy See officials for systematically concealing sexual crimes around the world, said his resignation may lead to more international prosecutions.

Clohessy told the Guardian: "Before he became pope his predecessor put him in charge of the abuse crisis. He has read thousands of pages of reports of the abuse cases from across the world. He knows more about clergy sex crimes and cover-ups than anyone else in the church yet he has done precious little to protect children."

He said a big question for the pope's successor is "what he will do in a very tangible way to safeguard children, deter cover-ups, punish enablers and chart a new course. What matters is not whether a statement is unprecedented but whether an action is affected."

Clohessy cited the example of 30 US bishops who have posted the names of predator priests on their diocese websites. He said that a new pontiff should require bishops to do that and to work to reform secular laws governing abuse "so that predators from every walk of life faces justice".

Bill McMurry, a lawyer from Kentucky who has sued the Vatican for sexual abuse allegations going back as far as 1928, said: "The world is stunned. We don't see in the history of the papal world a pope stand down. It makes you wonder what's going on."  McMurry said he personally holds Benedict responsible for "decades" of cover-up of the sex abuse scandal, during which time bishops were instructed to send paedophile priests from one district to another.

McMurry said he believed Benedict was appointed to the papacy in part because he had kept the sex abuse scandal at bay to protect the reputation of the church.  "We have seen documentations. We know that this is the role that Benedict played, and he did a terrific job of containing a scandal until it could be contained no more and it exploded."  "It is hard for me to accept that Benedict would step down. Unless there was a potential scandal that we will never know about that was bargained away. There's a lot of skull-duggery here. It just doesn't add up" he said.

The Center for Constitutional Rights, which filed a case against the pope last year at the International Criminal Court on behalf of Snap, said his departure would make international prosecution easier, both in its case at the ICC and other, potential prosecutions, because it will remove the immunity given to him as a head of state.

In a statement, the CRR said: "This pope is responsible for rape and other sexual violence around the world, both through his exercise of superior responsibility and through his direct involvement in the cover up of specific crimes. Tens of thousands of victims, most of them children, continue to suffer because he has placed the reputation of the church above the safety of its members. His resignation will make international prosecution easier for national systems of justice that still grant immunity to current heads of state."

Pam Spees, an attorney for CCR, said that since it had filed the suit in 2011, Snap has been contacted by survivors from 65 countries.  .  .  .  . "With respect to ICC, there was never any legal hurdles because he was head of state. But there were plenty of political hurdles to doing that. The fact that he is not any more should remove those political hurdles. He could also be more exposed to civil suits and criminal investigations at a national level."

I hope Benedict XVI gets prosecuted as he deserves.  The cynic in me wonders whether once out of the papacy he will quickly and conveniently die.

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