Habemus Papam

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected Cardinal today.

"Ratzinger, who took the name Benedict XVI, appeared on the balcony of the Vatican Basilica to greet the people and deliver his first papal blessing... ...In the Vatican, he has been the driving force behind crackdowns on liberation theology, religious pluralism, challenges to traditional moral teachings on issues such as homosexuality, and dissent on such issues as women's ordination.

At 78, Ratzinger is only 6 years younger than John Paul II was at his death. Ratzinger is also a reported former member of the Hitler Youth, and a confirmed former member of the Wehrmacht. Yipee. And he kind of resembles Palpatine: That being said, I don't know if Ratzinger's Nazi affiliations 60 years ago are particularly relevant. What is, to me, relevant, is what he has to say about priests sodomizing young boys.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the pope’s top doctrinal official, has endorsed the idea of the American bishops performing a public day of penance connected to the spiraling sexual abuse scandal in the United States.

Oooo. That'll be a deterrent.

Then, four years ago, some of the men tried a last ditch effort, taking the unusual step of filing a lawsuit in the Vatican's secretive court, seeking Macial's excommunication. Once again they laid out their evidence, but it was another futile effort — an effort the men say was blocked by one of the most powerful cardinals in the Vatican. The accusers say Vatican-based Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who heads the Vatican office to safeguard the faith and the morals of the church, quietly made the lawsuit go away and shelved it. There was no investigation and the accusers weren't asked a single question or asked for a statement. He was appointed by the pope to investigate the entire sex abuse scandal in the church in recent days. But when approached by ABCNEWS in Rome last week with questions of allegations against Maciel, Ratzinger became visibly upset and actually slapped this reporter's hand. "Come to me when the moment is given," Ratzinger told ABCNEWS, "not yet."

Swept under the rug. Finally, in 2002 the Boston Globe did a piece on the scandal, and noted that Ratzinger had

''watered down'' the rules for confronting priest sex abuse that were established by the US bishops in Dallas in June. He said the changes weakened the role of the lay boards and in the end, as Doyle put it, continued ''with the view that church law is somehow above state law.''

The Vatican's reaction to the priest pedophilia scandal is a joke, and Ratzinger's obvious involvement in the cover-up is disgraceful. How can Ratzinger lecture to the faithful about morals with a straight face?