A report accuses the pope emeritus Benedict XVI to learn about the existence of cases of sexual abuse of young people and minors within the German Catholic Church and not having acted in at least four cases occurred under his hierarchy. The document also highlights that Joseph Ratzinger has “strongly” refuted these accusations.
It was presented this Thursday by a Munich law firm commissioned by the city’s archbishopric and it documents abuses perpetrated over decades, between 1945 and 2019, and the successive ecclesiastical hierarchies are held responsible for not having acted and even for having covered them up.
Ratzinger was Archbishop of Munich between 1977 and 1982, before becoming prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican. In two of the cases attributed to this period, the abuses were allegedly committed by two clerics who were providing spiritual assistance and against whom no action at all.
Those responsible for the report consider the reaction of the now pope emeritus to be “little credible” about the degree of knowledge he came to have of certain cases and maintain, instead, that there was “no recognizable interest” on his part in acting In front of them.
Furthermore, the researchers believe that Ratzinger was aware of the case of the parish priest Peter H.., transferred in 1980 from the bishopric of Essen to that of Munich after being accused of pedophilia and who continued to commit abuses in his new destination.
They do not believe the statement of the now pope emeritus that he was not present at the meeting in which this transfer was decided and Ulrich Wastl, one of the lawyers, has assured that had “to have known the events” and that he “most likely” knew what was going on in the archdiocese.
The reaction of Ratzinger and the Vatican
Following the publication of the report, Benedict XVI’s personal secretary announced that this will examine the document in the coming days. “The pope emeritus, as he has already repeated several times during the years of his pontificate, expresses his shock and shame over child abuse committed by clerics,” he added.
The 94-year-old German pope, who has lived in seclusion in the Mater Ecclesiae monastery since his resignation in 2013, has also expressed “his personal closeness and his prayer for all the victims, some of whom he has met on the occasion of his apostolic journeys.” .
For its part, the Vatican has expressed its “shame” and “remorse” for the cases of abuse of minors by the clergy and has affirmed that “it will give due attention” to the document of the German archdiocese.
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
