CNN film: 'What the Pope knew'

A documentary with an identical title to that screened by BBC Panorama on the eve of the papal visit was shown on American television last weekend. But unlike Panorama, CNN's documentary took at face value the wild assertions of the lawyer Jeffrey Anderson, who is seeking to lay the groundwork for legal action against the Vatican on clerical sex abuse. Monitor has not seen the CNN film, but recommends the comments on it by Greg Erlandson and Matthew Bunson at their Our Sunday Visitor blog, which monitors the reporting on Pope Benedict and the sex abuse crisis. Erlandson and Bunson are the authors of a useful book (photo) on the subject.

Newsnight shows B16 'part of solution' to abuse

BBC2 Newsnight last night ran a thorough report (23:15-37:59) on how serious sex abuse allegations "ran aground in the Holy See". The question Peter Marshall (photo) posed -- "Was Benedict XVI part of the solution or part of the problem?" -- was examined by looking at two notorious high-level clerical abusers: Cardinal Groer of Vienna and Marcial Maciel, head of the Legionaries of Christ.

Two figures do not come out well: Cardinal Angelo Sodano, secretary of state -- effectively, the head of the Curia -- under Pope John Paul II, stands accused of blocking attempts to act against the two abusers; and Pope John Paul II, who was portrayed as being  in denial.

The current Cardinal Archishop of Vienna, Christoph Schonborn, says Cardinal Ratzinger's attempts to deal with them were thwarted by Sodano, and the evidence in favour of this reading seemed  compelling from the others Marshall interviews.

Moving against Maciel, of course, was one of the first acts of Pope Benedict after his election.

The answer seems to be: "part of the solution".