That's nonsense, RummyChick, since the CDF was only put in charge of sex abuse cases in 2001, and Cardinal Ratzinger left the CDF to become Pope in early 2005.
Prior to 2001, individual dioceses had the primary responsibility for investigating allegations of sexual abuse and disciplining perpetrators. In 2001, it was Ratzinger who convinced John Paul II to put the CDF in charge precisely to get past obstructionist bishops like Weakland, and combat the abuse more efficiently. According to the NCReporter's Vatican reporter John Allen, Jr., Ratzinger was "driven by that encounter with what he would later refer to as 'filth' in the Church. [He was] driven by a convert's zeal to clean up the mess". See article (Link)
As Vincent Nichols accurately reported to the London Times (Article Link) Ratizinger in his role as Head of the CFD "led important changes made in Church law: the inclusion in canon law of internet offences against children, the extension of child abuse offences to include the sexual abuse of all under 18, the case by case waiving of the statute of limitation and the establishment of a fast-track dismissal from the clerical state for offenders."
As the Head of the CDF, Ratzinger developed a tough reputation for handling these cases. According to Charles J. Scicluna, a former prosecutor handling sexual abuse cases, "Cardinal Ratzinger displayed great wisdom and firmness in handling those cases, also demonstrating great courage in facing some of the most difficult and thorny cases, sine acceptione personarum (without exceptions)". Scicluna's statement here (Link)
One of the cases Ratzinger pursued involved Father Marcial Maciel, the founder of the Legion of Christ, who had been accused repeatedly of sexual abuse. It was Ratzinger "took it on himself to authorize an investigation of Maciel" (Maciel Link). After Ratzinger became pope, he began proceedings against Maciel and the Legion of Christ that forced Maciel out of the active priesthood, denounced Maciel's "very serious and objectively immoral acts", which were "confirmed by incontrovertible testimonies" and represent "true crimes and manifest a life without scruples or authentic religious sentiment." Pope Benedict also appointed a special commission to basically either restructure or disband Maciel's religious order, the Legionnaires of Christ (LC), and its lay affiliate, Regnum Christi.
In other words, in the 3 1/2 years that investigation of child abuse issues was his responsibility, Ratzinger his the ground running, rooting out enablers and taking whole religious orders into conservatorship when the local power structure was unwilling or unable to undertake serious reform. Lawler cites Benedict's campaign of reform (Link)
I provided a lot of links so that people interested in an accurate accont of this matter can see for themselves.
You said, RummyChick, that Ratzinge/Pope Benedict was "the head of the snake." On the contrary, he was the man of virtue who, with the help of the Lord Jesus, is crushing the snake under his foot.
Oh, P.S. Did Maciel lie about Pope Pius XII? You have to ask?
Rummy, you know as well as I do that Maciel was a lying, sexually depraved sociopath. Of course he lied. He lied like the Demon, the Father of Lies. That's what sociopathic perverts do.
“That’s nonsense, RummyChick, since the CDF was only put in charge of sex abuse cases in 2001,”
NOT TRUE
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/02/world/europe/02pope.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
“The office led by Cardinal Ratzinger, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, had actually been given authority over sexual abuse cases nearly 80 years earlier, in 1922, documents show and canon lawyers confirm. But for the two decades he was in charge of that office, the future pope never asserted that authority, failing to act even as the cases undermined the church’s credibility in the United States, Australia, Ireland and elsewhere.”
Crimen Sollicitationis
http://www.richardsipe.com/Doyle/2008/2008-10-03-Commentary%20on%201922%20and%201962%20documents.pdf
http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/goodfather/vatican.html
“Father Tom Doyle, a leading canon law expert in the U.S., says the mere existence of Crimen sollicitationis proves that “the highest Catholic Church authorities were aware of the especially grave nature of clergy sexual crimes.””