DUBLIN — Pope Benedict XVI addresses Ireland today in a letter apologizing for the sex-abuse scandal here — a message being watched closely by Catholics from Boston to Berlin to see whether it also acknowledges decades of Vatican-approved coverups.
The church is only beginning to come to terms with decades of child abuse in its parishes and schools. The scandals first emerged in Canada and Australia in the 1980s, followed by Ireland in the 1990s, the United States and, in recent months, Benedict’s German homeland.
Victims’ rights activists say that to begin mending the church’s battered image, Benedict’s message — his first pastoral letter on child abuse in the church — must break his silence on the role of the Catholic hierarchy in shielding pedophile clergy from prosecution.
That includes abuses committed decades ago under the pope’s watch, when he was Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger of Munich, as well as the pontiff’s role in hushing up the scandals.
As leader of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Ratzinger was responsible for a 2001 Vatican edict that instructed bishops to report all cases of child abuse to Vatican authorities under strict secrecy. It made no mention of reporting crimes to police.
Benedict, who served as archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1982, has yet to speak about the hundreds of abuse cases emerging since January in Germany.
Benedict’s successor in Munich, Archbishop Reinhard Marx, said the pope’s letter to Ireland “will of course affect us. The pope always speaks for everyone. It is not . . . for specific groups or countries.”
Marx said the pope should not be expected to take responsibility for abuses committed by individual priests.
“We expect the pope to take a stand on everything every time, but we are responsible for what happens here,” he said.
