Cathedral of Munich
By Andrea Tornielli
Feb 9 2022
“Mea maxima culpa” for the abominable sin of abuse and the errors that occurred. The Christian gaze of the Pope Emeritus expressing “profound shame”, “deep sorrow”, and a “heartfelt request for forgiveness”.
As promised, Benedict XVI has spoken. He spoke as a Christian. A nearly 95-year-old Christian, who is living the final years of his long life increasingly frail in body, with a feeble voice but lucid mind, and who has found himself once again at the center of accusations and controversies.
His brief and heartfelt response stems from his deep gaze of faith. Ratzinger took his cue from the penitential act of daily Mass to express his personal and moving “confession.”
At the beginning of every Eucharistic liturgy, the celebrant and the faithful repeat the “mea culpa” ending with the words “my most grievous fault”. It is the consciousness of being sinners and therefore in need of imploring mercy and forgiveness.
This “penitential” attitude is far from both the triumphalism that considers the Church an earthly power and the corporatist style that reduces its existence to organization, structure, and strategies. It is also far from the widespread attitude of always judging others and their faults, instead of questioning oneself about one’s own.
Joseph Ratzinger, as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, at the beginning of the new millennium waged a struggle against clerical abuses. As Pope he enacted very harsh laws to combat this abominable scourge. However, in his letter he neither recalls nor lays claim to any of this.
The days following the publication of the Munich report were an opportunity for him to make an “examination of conscience” and a personal “reflection” on what happened.
