Former Pope Benedict Just Broke His Silence on the Catholic Church's Child Abuse Scandal, and Yep, He's Blaming Liberals

"In various seminaries homosexual cliques were established," he writes, "which acted more or less openly and significantly changed the climate in the seminaries."

...and those who questioned the Church's fundamentalist teachings about sex.

"There could no longer be anything that constituted an absolute good any more than anything fundamentally evil; there could be only relative value judgments," Benedict wrote.

The pushback on social media has been harsh.

Perhaps the problem is and was predatory priests.

Even prominent Catholics are crying foul.

"This is an embarrassing letter. The idea that ecclesial abuse of children was a result of the 1960s, a supposed collapse of moral theology, and 'conciliarity' is an embarrassingly wrong explanation for the systemic abuse of children and its coverup," tweeted Catholic theologian Brian Flanagan.

Amen.

Benedict also complained that the United States and Rome could never see eye to eye on what to do with priests who abuse kids. Rome preferred light punishment, while the US had a "zero tolerance" policy.

Rome's approach "could not be accepted by the American bishops," he wrote, "because the priests thus remained in the service of the bishop and thereby could be taken to be still directly associated with him."

Nevertheless, Benedict did offer a solution: more God.

"Why did pedophilia reach such proportions?" he asks. "Ultimately the reason is the absence of God."