Benedict XVI admitted that he was at the meeting in which a case of pedophilia of a priest was discussed

Benedict XVI admitted this Monday that attended the meeting of the Ordinariate on January 15, 1980, during which there was talk of a priest from the diocese of Essen who had abused multiple children and had gone to Munich for “therapy”.

This statement by the Pope Emeritus Contrast with the statements you gave some time ago to prepare a report on this problem. In that document, which was published on January 20 in Germany, he was accused of inaction in four cases of pedophilia in that country.

According to the report, Joseph Ratzinger, who has resided in the Vatican since his resignation in 2013 and who is in frail health, was untrue in stating in an 82-page memoir that he was not part of the meeting, since according to the minutes he intervened in it and was not listed as absent.

Ratzinger, who was archbishop of Munich and Freising between 1977 and 1982, did not act at the time to prevent a priest from abusing four children, said the authors of this report, prepared by the law firm West Pole Spilker Wastl (WSW), at the request of the archdiocese.

In a letter signed by Monseñor Georg Gänswein, private secretary of Benedict XVI, and disclosed this Monday by the German Catholic agency KNA and the Vatican press portal, Vatican News, Benedict XVI tried to clarify that “contrary to what was said to the authors of the report, participated in the meeting of January 15, 1980″.

The statements he gave to WSW were “factually incorrect,” Gänswein said, stressing that it was a “mistake.” The 94-year-old Pope Emeritus asked for “forgiveness” for that mistake.

“The contrary statement was factually incorrect and is interested in emphasizing that this it was not done in bad faith, but was the result of a typing error of your statement. He will explain how this happened in the following statement. He is very sorry for this mistake and apologizes, ”explained his spokesman.

At least 497 people suffered abuse in the archdiocese of Munich-Freising, in a period of almost 74 years (from 1945 to 2019), according to a summary of the report. Most of the victims were male and 60% were between 8 and 14 years old.

Ratzinger knew of the abuses, report says

According to the document, the pope emeritus did nothing to prevent various priests from sexually abusing minors in the German archdiocese he headed in the 1980s.

Two of the cases involve clerics who committed various abuses proven by the courts, but were allowed to continue their pastoral duties. The authors of the report stated that they are “convinced” that Ratzinger was aware, at least, from the pedophile past of the priest Peter Hullermann.

Hullermann was accused in 1980 of serious sexual abuse of minors, but the ecclesiastical authorities transferred him to Bavaria, where, despite psychiatric therapy, he continued with the abuse. In 2010 he was finally forced to retire.

Benedict XVI stressed that at the meeting “no decision was made on the attribution of a pastoral mission to the priest in question”. “Only the request to provide him with accommodation during his therapy in Munich was accepted”, he assured.

Discontent in the Church

In recent days there have been criticisms of the behavior of the Pope Emeritus, who last Friday was branded as “disastrous” by the president of the German Episcopal Conference, Georg Bätzing.

The bishop of Aachen, Helmut Dieser, claimed in his sermon this Sunday that Ratzinger assumes the responsibility that corresponds to him. “It cannot be that those responsible slip away with references to the fact that they did not know anything or that then there was another situation or other procedures,” he said.

“That is the reason why the perpetrators were not arrested then and children continued to be abused,” he added, according to statements quoted by the public broadcaster ARD.

At 94 years old, Ratzinger will have to face the scandal.

With information from agencies

DB​