Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. regrets, according to his private secretary Georg Gänswein, the abuse of minors by church officials. “The Pope Emeritus, as he has done several times during the years of his pontificate, expresses his shame and regret at the abuse perpetrated by clerics on minors and renews his personal closeness and prayer for all victims,” the media portal quoted “Vatican News” Gänswein on Thursday.
Benedict did not know the report from the law firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl (WSW) “until Thursday afternoon” and wanted to study and examine it in the coming days, Archbishop Gänswein explained. For the Vatican, the spokesman for the Holy See, Matteo Bruni, also announced that he wanted to take a close look at the results.
Serious allegations against ex-Pope
The report blames the 94-year-old for misconduct in dealing with sexual abuse during his time as archbishop of the diocese of Munich and Freising. During his time as Archbishop of Munich, the cardinal at the time knowingly used abusers “with a high degree of probability” in pastoral care and said the untruth about it.
The report also comes to the conclusion that many priests and deacons continued to be employed even after corresponding allegations became known. Regardless of this, 40 clerics were again active in pastoral care or this was tolerated. In 18 of them, this even happened after a “relevant conviction”, as lawyer Martin Pusch said. A total of 43 clerics did not take any “required measures of a sanction nature”.
All in all, the new report from the Catholic Diocese is a bad testimonial. Even recently, there has been no “paradigm shift” with a focus on those affected, said Pusch. “Until recently, and in some cases even today, injured parties encounter hurdles.”
Joseph Ratzinger, like Benedict XVI. whose real name is called, has lived in a monastery in the Vatican since resigning from office. (zis/SDA)