VATICAN (Washington Insider Magazine) – Pope Benedict XVI acknowledged that he actually did attend a meeting in Munich in 1980 in which a sexually abusive priest was also discussed, claiming that a previous denial was due to an editing error.
Benedict’s revelation came only days after a report investigating sexual abuse in Germany criticized him for failing to act against 4 predatory priests when he was archbishop of Munich.
Benedict had “strictly” rejected culpability in answer to the allegations, according to the attorneys who drafted the report.
The attorneys disputed Benedict’s claim that he did not recollect attending the 1980 meeting to talk about the issue of an abused priest at a media conference in Munich on Thursday to deliver their conclusions. According to NBC News, they said that this contradicted papers in their possession.
Benedict’s private secretary acknowledged on Monday that the ex-pope did indeed attend the meeting.
According to the Associated Press, the priest was cleared to continue pastoral work after a decision taken by a lower-ranking member without contacting the archbishop.
Benedict wanted to clarify how the error occurred after he finished reviewing the report, according to Archbishop Georg Gänswein.
Benedict neglected to intervene in four cases of sexual abuse in Germany’s Munich diocese from 1977 to 1982 while he was archbishop of Munich, according to a study issued last Thursday.
Benedict, who is now 94 years old, resigned as Pope in 2013. From 1977 to 1982, he served in Munich before becoming the head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and later Pope Benedict XVI.
Last year, Pope Francis stressed that reform was imperative and every bishop must bear responsibility for the abuse issue. However, he turned down Marx’s offer of resignation at the time.
Between 1946 and 2014, an estimated 3,677 people were molested by clergy in Germany, according to a church-commissioned investigation released in 2018. Nearly a third of the victims were altar boys, and a majority of those victims were 13 or younger.
Over the previous few decades, charges of child sexual abuse have been made in Australia, South America, and a couple of European countries.
