Andrew Sullivan was on Bill Maher. Sullivan said Ratz knew about the scandal in 1997 and ignored it. Below is article from Wikopedia with a link. Sorry for the length. Ratz's whole life in covered in one single link.
From Wikopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Cardinal_RatzingerSex abuse scandal
Regarding the Roman Catholic Church sex abuse scandal, he was seen by critics as at best, indifferent to the abuse and at worst, complicit in covering it up, both in specific cases and as a matter of policy. As prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), such abuses were ultimately his responsibility to investigate within the Church.
On May 18, 2001, Cardinal Ratzinger, as part of the implementation of the norms enacted and promulgated on April 30, 2001 by Pope John Paul II, sent a Latin language letter to every bishop in the Catholic church reminding them of the strict penalties facing those who revealed confidential details concerning enquiries into allegations against priests of certain grave ecclesiastical crimes, including sexual abuse, reserved to the jurisdiction of the CDF. The letter established a prescription (statute of limitations) of 10 years for these crimes. However, when the crime is sexual abuse of a minor, the "prescription begins to run from the day on which the minor completes the eighteenth year of age." <13>
According to Catholic News Service, "One bishop who is well informed on the issue and asked not to be named said the secrecy demanded by the new norms gives the appearance of a “cover-up” by the church." Lawyers acting for two alleged victims of abuse in Texas claim that by sending the letter the cardinal conspired to obstruct justice. However, the letter did not discourage victims from reporting the abuse itself to the police; the secrecy related to the internal investigation. "The letter said the new norms reflected the CDF’s traditional “exclusive competence” regarding delicta graviora—Latin for “graver offenses.” According to canon law experts in Rome, reserving cases of clerical sexual abuse of minors to the CDF is something new. In past eras, some serious crimes by priests against sexual morality, including pedophilia, were handled by that congregation or its predecessor, the Holy Office, but this has not been true in recent years."
The promulgation of the norms by Pope John Paul II and the subsequent letter by the then Prefect of the CDF were published in 2001 in Acta Apostolicae Sedis which, in accordance with the Code of Canon Law is the Holy See's official journal, disseminated monthly to thousands of libraries and offices around the world.
On April 23, 2005, The Independent reported that Ratzinger had since 1997 ignored specific sex abuse allegations made by nine different people against Friar Marcial Maciel, the founder of the Legion of Christ. Cardinal Ratzinger is quoted as having said "One can't put on trial such a close friend of the Pope's as Marcial Maciel."
After the nine brought claims—many corroborated by each other's detailed testimonies—before the Vatican's courts in the mid-1990s, on December 24, 1999, Ratzinger's secretary, Father Gianfranco Girotti, wrote to the men saying that the Vatican considered the matter closed. In a last-ditch attempt to persuade Ratzinger to change his mind, another letter was despatched to him in 2002 through an intermediary. It went unanswered. Cardinal Ratzinger re-opened the investigation in December of 2004.
In 2002 Cardinal Ratzinger told Catholic News Service that "less than one percent of priests are guilty of acts of this type." Opponents saw this as ignoring the crimes of those who committed the abuse; others saw it as merely pointing out that this should not taint other priests who live respectable lives.
A report by the Catholic Church itself estimated that some 4,450 of the Roman Catholic clergy who served between 1950 and 2002 have faced credible accusations of abuse. His Good Friday reflections in 2005 were interpreted as strongly condemning and regretting the abuse scandals, which largely put to rest the speculation of indifference. Shortly after his election, he told Cardinal Francis George, Archbishop of Chicago, that he would attend to the matter.
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