The two former Mexican seminarians had gone to the Vatican in 1998 to personally deliver a case recounting decades of sexual abuse by one of the most powerful priests in the Roman Catholic Church, the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado.<\/p>\n
As they left, they ran into the man who would hold Father Maciel\u2019s fate in his hands, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, and kissed his ring. The encounter was no accident. Cardinal Ratzinger wanted to meet them, witnesses later said, and their case was soon accepted.<\/p>\n
But in little more than a year, word emerged that Cardinal Ratzinger \u201d\u201d the future Pope Benedict XVI \u201d\u201d halted the inquiry. \u201cIt isn\u2019t prudent,\u201d\u009d he had told a Mexican bishop, according to two people who later talked to the bishop.<\/p>\n
For five years, the case remained stalled, possibly a hostage to Father Maciel\u2019s powerful protectors in the Curia, the Vatican\u2019s governing apparatus, and his own deep influence at the Holy See.<\/p>\n