Arnobius:
I think that quotations from people who were actually there at the time and knew Cardinal Ratzinger in Munich are much better than speculations out of thin air that Ratzinger knew this priest was a pedophile and gave him a parish assignment anyways.
And most people quoted are not taking swipes as the Pope. It is one thing to say he was an aloof professor who left management to subordinates (the thrust of this article), and quite another thing to call him the friend of pedophiles who is a hypocrite on the question of protecting children (the thrust of the previous articles). I’ll take the former over the latter if I have to hear anything in public about the Holy Father.
TJerome:
I don’t know what that question has to do with the present speculation of the Holy Father’s innocence. Like Fr. Z, I read articles of interest which are sent to me. Of the ordination vows I took, not reading articles from the Times was not one of them. Please contribute something about the message here. It would be far more interesting than wishing to examine the reading lists of all the posters.