Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI at Munich Airport in Freising, Germany, on June 22, 2020. (Sven Hoppe / dpa through AP)
BERLIN --
An extended-awaited report on sexual abuse in Germany's Munich diocese on Thursday faulted retired Pope Benedict XVI's dealing with of 4 circumstances when he was archbishop within the Nineteen Seventies and Eighties. The regulation agency that drew up the report mentioned Benedict strongly denies any wrongdoing.
The findings have been certain to reignite criticism of Benedict's file greater than a decade after the primary, and till Thursday solely, identified case involving him was made public.
The archdiocese commissioned the report from regulation agency Westpfahl Spilker Wastl practically two years in the past, with a mandate to look into abuse between 1945 and 2019 and whether or not church officers dealt with allegations appropriately. The regulation agency examined church information and spoke to witnesses.
Church officers weren't knowledgeable of the outcomes forward of publication. The present archbishop -- Cardinal Reinhard Marx, a outstanding reformist ally of Pope Francis -- was faulted in two circumstances.
Marx's predecessors embrace the previous Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who served in Munich from 1977 to 1982 earlier than changing into head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Religion and later being elected pope. Benedict gave in depth written testimony for the report.
"In a complete of 4 circumstances, we got here to the conclusion that the then-archbishop, Cardinal Ratzinger, will be accused of misconduct," mentioned one of many report's authors, Martin Pusch.
Two of these circumstances, he mentioned, concerned perpetrators who offended whereas he was in workplace and have been punished by the judicial system however have been saved in pastoral work with out categorical limits on what they have been allowed to do. No motion was ordered beneath canon regulation.
In a 3rd case, a cleric who had been convicted by a court docket exterior Germany was put into service within the Munich archdiocese and the circumstances communicate for Ratzinger having identified of the priest's earlier historical past, Pusch mentioned.
When the church abuse scandal first flared in Germany in 2010, consideration swirled round one other case: that of a pedophile priest whose switch to Munich to endure remedy was authorized beneath Ratzinger in 1980.
The priest was allowed to renew pastoral work, a choice that the church has mentioned was made by a lower-ranking official with out consulting the archbishop. In 1986, the priest obtained a suspended sentence for molesting a boy.
One other of the report's authors, Ulrich Wastl, mentioned Benedict's declare to not have attended a gathering in 1980 during which the priest's switch to Munich was mentioned lacks credibility.
"In all circumstances, Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI strictly denies any wrongdoing on his half," Pusch mentioned, and the retired pontiff cites largely "lack of information of the details and a scarcity of relevance beneath canon and felony regulation." However he added that the assertions of lack of information have been typically "exhausting to reconcile" with the contents of church information.
Matthias Katsch of Eckiger Tisch, a gaggle representing German clergy abuse survivors, spoke of a "historic" second. "This constructing of lies that was constructed right here in Munich to guard Cardinal Ratzinger, Pope Benedict, collapsed at present," he advised German information company dpa.
"To us, this isn't surprising information," SNAP, a community representing survivors of intercourse abuse by clergy, mentioned in an announcement. "Sadly, we see these unsavory actions and inactions floor years later after prolonged silence by church officers and painful reminiscences harbored by victims."
Benedict's longtime secretary, Monsignor Georg Gaenswein, mentioned the retired pope hadn't but learn the report however would within the coming days.
"The emeritus pope, as he repeated many instances through the years of his hold forth, expresses his upset and disgrace on the abuse of minors dedicated by clerics, and expresses his private closeness and his prayers to all of the victims, a few of whom he met throughout his apostolic journeys," Gaenswein mentioned in an announcement. Benedict retired in 2013.
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni mentioned the Holy See would not remark till it had learn the report in full and will give the contents "cautious and detailed examination."
Benedict's legacy as pope had already been coloured by the worldwide eruption in 2010 of the intercourse abuse scandal, though as a cardinal he was answerable for turning across the Vatican's method to the difficulty.
Benedict gained firsthand data of the worldwide scope of the issue when he took over on the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Religion in 1982, after his time in Munich. Ratzinger took the then-revolutionary choice in 2001 to imagine duty for processing these circumstances after he realized bishops world wide weren't punishing abusers however have been simply shifting them from parish to parish the place they might rape once more.
The report runs to just about 1,900 pages, together with annexes amongst that are Benedict's written responses, redacted to black out names.
It factors to at the very least 497 abuse victims over the a long time and at the very least 235 suspected perpetrators, although the authors mentioned that in actuality there have been most likely many extra.
Cardinal Friedrich Wetter, Munich's archbishop from 1982 till Marx took over in 2008, was faulted over his dealing with of 21 circumstances. Pusch mentioned he additionally denies wrongdoing.
In a rare gesture final 12 months, Marx provided to resign over the Catholic Church's "catastrophic" mishandling of clergy sexual abuse circumstances, declaring that the scandals had introduced the church to "a lifeless finish."
Francis swiftly rejected the supply however mentioned a strategy of reform was needed and that each bishop should take duty for the "disaster" of the abuse disaster.
Marx did not point out both Benedict's function or his personal in a short look hours after the report was launched, however provided an apology.
"As archbishop of Munich and Freising, I really feel that I share duty for the church as an establishment over current a long time," he mentioned. "In order the serving archbishop, I apologize for the struggling that was precipitated to folks" in church establishments, he added.
Marx added that church officers will take into account "outcomes and additional penalties" as they research the report, and he hopes for preliminary conclusions subsequent Thursday. He mentioned that coping with abuse is inseparable from reform of the church.
In 2018, a separate church-commissioned report concluded that at the very least 3,677 folks have been abused by clergy in Germany between 1946 and 2014. Greater than half of the victims have been 13 or youthful, and practically a 3rd served as altar boys.
In current months, turbulence within the Cologne archdiocese over officers' dealing with of abuse allegations has convulsed the German church. A report final 12 months discovered that the archbishop of Hamburg, a former Cologne church official, uncared for his responsibility in a number of circumstances in dealing with such allegations, however Francis rejected his resignation supply.
That report cleared Cologne's archbishop of wrongdoing, however Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki's dealing with of the difficulty infuriated many Catholics. In September, the pope gave Woelki a several-month "non secular timeout" after what the Vatican known as "main errors" of communication.
Nicole Winfield in Rome contributed to this report.
Pope Benedict XVI, Vatican
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