thanks. before he was pope benedict he was cardinal ratzinger. one of the most powerful men in the vatican. it's recently come to light that as head of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith cardinal ratzinger had direct responsibility for decisions in notorious sex abuse cases. cnn's gary tuchman is examining the handling of a case from the heartland of the united states. ♪ >> reporter: by 2001, the sexual abuse crisis beginning to engulf the catholic church but pope john paul did not address the crisis. priests in the u.s. were being on trial for abuse, even rape. >> the era of denial was clearly over. ratzinger finally convinced his boss that we have to start doing something. he knew the sort of media scandal was coming down. >> reporter: the pope gave