During his visit to Mexico, Pope Benedict XVI notably did not meet with victims of sexual abuse by priests, an omission that earned him criticism from several groups.
The pope does not shun such abuse victims routinely. In fact, he has met with several representative groups in various countries he has visited, but a spokesman for the Vatican said no such meeting was scheduled in Mexico because none of the Mexican bishops requested it, whereas those of other countries had.
The cold shoulder nevertheless stings for many. On Saturday, during the papal visit and very nearby in Leon, Guanajuato, Alberto Athie, Jose Barba and Fernando Gonzalez released their book, “La voluntad de no saber” (“The Will to Not Know”), which accuses the church of protecting for years one their most influential Mexican figures, Marcial Maciel.
Maciel, founder of the popular religious order Legion of Christ and a mover in the inner circles of the Vatican, is said to have lived a secret life of rampant child abuse and drug use. The Holy See in 2010 formally acknowledged that Maciel had sexually abused several underage seminarians and fathered at least three children with two different women. Having died in 2008, Maciel suffered no such disgrace in his lifetime.Now, though, the authors present 212 unedited Vatican documents in their book, which they say prove irrefutably that the church knew since the 1940s and ‘50s of Maciel’s perverse predilections, even temporarily suspending him for two years during an investigation.
Benedict, known then as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, was in charge of the office of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, which received formal complaints from Maciel’s former victims in 1998, but the church took another eight years to sanction the man while the Legion of Christ denounced them as liars.
Ratzinger, on becoming Pope Benedict XVI, did remove Maciel from active ministry and order him to spend the rest of his days in prayer and penance.
But, it seems, Maciel’s victims have missed their chance for a meeting with the church’s highest office and the respect that would come with it. Some of his victims from the ‘40s and ‘50s might not be around for the next pastoral visit.
The documents have been provided for free at www.lavoluntaddenosaber.com.