VATICAN CITY—Former Pope Benedict has blamed the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandal on the effects of the sexual revolution of the 1960s, homosexual cliques in seminaries and what he called a general collapse in morality.
In a rare essay, he said the Church’s legal system had at times been overly protective of accused clerics, citing what he called judicial guarantees that were “extended to such an extent that convictions were hardly possible.”
The 91-year-old, who in 2013 became the first pope in six centuries to resign, argued that the sexual revolution had led some to believe pedophilia and pornography were acceptable. He also said that an openly gay culture in some Catholic seminaries meant they had failed to train priests properly.
“It could be said that in the 20 years from 1960 to 1980, the previously normative standards regarding sexuality collapsed entirely, and a new normalcy arose that has by now been the subject of laborious attempts at disruption,” Benedict wrote.
Benedict was head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office when the first wave of abuse cases were exposed in Boston in 2002. Later, as pope, he took action against some pedophiles that had been blocked during the reign of his predecessor, John Paul.
Abuse scandals in Ireland, Chile, Australia, France, the United States, Poland, Germany, and elsewhere have forced the Church to pay out billions of dollars in damages to victims and close parishes. Many cases date back decades before the 1960s.
‘Stunning’
Benedict offered his evaluations in a long essay in Klerusblatt, a monthly Church magazine in Bavaria, his native region of Germany. A Vatican official confirmed the authenticity of the essay.Benedict said the impetus for the essay, titled “The Church and the Scandal of Sexual Abuse”, was a summit of senior bishops that Francis, his successor as pope, held in February to discuss the crisis.
“Among the freedoms that the Revolution of 1968 sought to fight for was this all-out sexual freedom, one which no longer conceded any norms,” Benedict wrote, according to an English translation published by several Catholic websites.
He said the spread of explicit sex education for young schoolchildren and nudity in advertising had contributed to a loosening of moral bearings and an “absence of God”.
