Former Pope Benedict XVI denies allegations, but apologizes for sexual abuse inside church

“I have held great responsibility in the Catholic Church. Even greater is my pain for the abuses and mistakes that have occurred during my service in the respective places where they have occurred.“, Writes the Pope withdrawn from the pontiff in his speech, published by the Vatican and read in an online video by his private secretary Georg Gänswein. In it Benedict expresses “deep shame”, “great pain” and “a sincere prayer for the forgiveness of all victims of sexual abuse”.

At the same time, the 94-year-old categorically denies the accusations that he, as Archbishop of Munich (1977-1982), has covered cases of abuse. He also points out that he neither lied nor retouched his statements of expertise published in late January by Westpfahl Spilker Wastl (WSW) lawyer.

These allegations are categorically refuted in a “fact-check” published by Ratzinger’s lawyers and advisers (formerly Pope Benedict): “, It says. “As Archbishop, Cardinal Ratzinger has not been involved in concealing acts of abuse.”

Reactions to this statement fluctuate. On the one hand, criticism with disappointment up to the assessment as “a liberating attitude”. Ecclesiastical lawyer Thomas Schüller considers Benedict’s statement inadequate. He talks about mistakes and abuses, but excludes himself. “So it seems that the forces that remain anonymous are the ones who made mistakes in the archdiocese of Munich-Freising, not him,” criticizes Schüller, who heads the Institute of Catholic Law at the University of Münster. “He does not take personal responsibility and does not issue personal consequences,” says the expert.

The Eckiger Tisch Victims of Abuse Initiative has expressed disappointment and even indignation: “Pain and shame – those affected can no longer hear this,” the initiative communicated. “The former pope’s statement adds to the church’s constant relativism to the issue of abuses: Abuses and mistakes have taken place, but no one takes concrete responsibility.”

What does the expertise contain?

The former Pope Benedict XVI retired from the pontificate is charged with responsibility in the expertise on abuses in the archdiocese of Munich and Freising. According to the expertise, the former archbishop of Munich, Joseph Ratzinger, in four cases has not taken any action against the clergy accused of abuses, say investigators in Munich. In a statement, Benedict had “categorically” denied the responsibility, but investigators consider this unreliable.

In two cases, when the expertise found a wrong attitude of the former archbishop of Munich, it was about clerics, who had committed some abuses even certified by state courts. Both priests have nevertheless continued to be kept in church structures and nothing has been done against them by ecclesiastical law. It is also noted in the expertise that there was no “apparent” interest of Ratzinger regarding the victims of abuse.

Investigators are now convinced that Ratzinger was aware of the dark past of the priest Peter H., who in the 1980s had gone to Munich from the Bishopric of Essen. H. had been convicted as a pedophile and later even in the bishopric of Munich continued with abusive actions. Lawyer Martin Pusch said that Ratzinger had initially “taken a negative stance” during the drafting of the expertise. But later he had changed his attitude by positioning himself in writing in detail.

A total of at least 235 hands

Investigators in their expertise on abuses at the archdiocese of Munich and Freisinugt have uncovered 235 defendants from 1945 to 2019. Of those, 173 were priests, says attorney Pusch. The number of injured is 497. Of these, 247 are male and 182 female victims. In 68 cases the gender could not be ascertained. This konfimorn, who were mainly children and minors affected males.

In almost 60 percent of cases the affected were aged 8 to 14 years. Most cases occurred in the 1960s and 1970s, Pusch said. It is noteworthy that many cases have been reported directly by those affected since 2015. The lawyer emphasizes that with these figures we are dealing with the bleached part of this chapter, but the dark part of it may have even more cases.

67 clergy, according to Pusch, should have been sanctioned under the “intensity of cases” under ecclesiastical law. In 43 cases the sanctioning was mild. In 40 other cases, the priests, including 18 priests, were kept engaged in the church even after receiving sentences in state courts.

The victims are left alone

Pusch said that victims of abuse since 2002 have not been taken into account at all by those in charge of the church. Even if in some cases the victims have been contacted by the church, this has been done not so much to treat and alleviate the suffering they have experienced, but more based on the fact that the church has considered them as a threat to the institution’s reputation, the lawyer says.

The investigation mandated by the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising has been published in full online by Westpfahl chancellor Spilker Wastl. The expertise has a volume of more than 1600 pages./ DW

top channel