In the age of quick-fix news hits on blogs and where stories break via Twitter selling the general public on watching an hour-long investigative news piece on what seems like a rehashed story isn’t the easiest thing to do. But CNN is up to the challenge and will be airing the documentary “What the Pope Knew” this Saturday.
The documentary reported by Gary Tuchman takes a look at the well known and infamous issue of sexual abuse by Catholic priests. It is an issue that while no less important now seems to have perhaps faded into the background as other controversial issues pervade the headlines. What CNN and Tuchman are banking on with this piece is that the revelation of new church documents and exclusive interviews with the Vatican’s “prosecutor” Charles Scicluna and the first victim to sue the Pope will generate viewers and buzz. And they just might be successful.
The twist in this documentary that makes it worth checking out is the angle the piece takes on the scandal. Instead of a general overview of incidents “What the Pope Knew” focuses as the title strongly suggests on the culpability of Pope Benedict. Tuchman delves into a handful of instances where the evidence seems to show that the Pope mostly during his time as a Cardinal was aware of many abusive priests and did nothing to discipline or stop them. At his last post within the Vatican before becoming the Pope Benedict then Cardinal Ratzinger had the power to defrock or essentially fire priests accused or convicted of molestation. This would have removed them from positions where they would have had continued access to minors. In case after case Ratzinger refuses to outright defrock abusive priests.
The truth however isn’t that simple; and to their credit CNN and Tuchman at least acknowledge that. The fact is that the Pope was most likely hesitant to take such actions because they went against what was at the time the understanding of canonical law. It wasn’t so much that he “knew” all sorts of incriminating things and simply let it go on because he didn’t care. But of course this is how the documentary is being hyped. And it’s understandable on two fronts.
First is the point already mentioned: that promotion of this type of piece is difficult and important these days. The second point has to do with the Catholic Church’s approach to the issue. While the current Pope has taken unprecedented strides to addressing the sex abuse scandal there is still an air of avoidance coming from the Vatican. The sooner it all goes away for them the better. They don’t want to portray anything as an actual scandal. So it is actually somewhat admirable that documentaries like this one ratchet up the scandalous nature of everything in order to confront church policy. Either way the piece is ultimately successful and worth watching. It airs this Saturday at 8 p.m. on CNN.