Cardinal Ratzinger eliminated national bishops’ conferences, several of which, independent of Rome, had begun confronting the sexual abuse crisis and devising policies to address it in their countries.
When? How? It wasn't his area to do and as far as I know the bishops' conferences are all intact and quite frankly they can agree on things, but the conferences have no legal power within the chruch. The USCCB passed all the documentation in 1984 and, as each bishop has to deal with his own diocese, some dioceses got cleaned up and some didn't. Mine actually did. So this statement is iffy at best.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, had actually been given authority over sexual abuse cases nearly 80 years earlier, but for the two decades Ratzinger was in charge of that office her never asserted that authority.
No source of documentation? It's my understanding that the authority, until 2001, was with the Congregation of Clergy unless the case involved the confessional and with the seal involved, it went to Doctrine of the Faith. For whatever reason, that was changed.
Throughout the ’80s and ’90s, bishops who sought to penalize and dismiss abusive priests were daunted by a bewildering bureaucratic and canonical legal process, with contradicting laws and overlapping jurisdictions in Rome.
??????? My archbishop sent priests to prison in those years and had no problem laicizing. This is a cop out if some bishop actually suggested it, say one of the media darlings that actually was relieved of command early.
This is the New York Times. When it comes to Catholicism, I wouldn't believe a word printed. Honestly, it looks like this is meant to stir up trouble. It's the July blinker on a much larger PR campaign. And having a degree in communications, it's not hard to see the pattern.
Have you noticed that anti-Catholic activity seems to peak on Fridays? I wonder if there is conscious symbolism.