Church tremors: Report comes to a devastating result - Pope Benedict and Cardinal Marx in focus

Created: 2022-01-21 05:13

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is heavily charged in a new report on abuse in the Catholic Church.

Update from January 20, 3 p.m.:

A new report on sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising raises serious allegations against Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger at the time, when he was Archbishop of Munich, "with a high degree of probability" knowingly used abusers in pastoral care and said untruth about it.

In a total of four cases, the experts accuse him of misconduct.

According to the study presented on Thursday, at least 497 children and young people were sexually abused in the Catholic diocese by priests, deacons or other church employees between 1945 and 2019. According to the law firm, there were at least 235 alleged perpetrators - including 173 priests and 9 deacons. However, this is only the so-called bright field. A significantly larger number of unreported cases can be assumed. Lawyer Ulrich Wastl spoke of a "balance sheet of terror".

40 clerics continued to work in pastoral care even after cases of abuse, or this was tolerated.

In 18 of them, this even happened after "relevant convictions", as Wastl's colleague Martin Pusch said.

A total of 43 clerics did not take any "required measures of a sanction nature".

According to the lawyers, the responsibility for this - the report also makes it clear - is primarily the Munich bishops and general vicars and thus also the later Pope Benedict XVI, who was Archbishop of Munich and Freising from 1977 to 1982.

Church tremors: Report comes to a devastating result - Pope Benedict and Cardinal Marx in focus

The lawyers hold Ratzinger up to misconduct in four cases. In two of them he is said to have brought priests to Bavaria, for whom he "predominantly probably" knew of their past abuse. In all cases, Benedikt strictly rejected any misconduct. His 82-page statement can be read in the appendix to the report, which has now been published on the law firm's website. One of these cases is about a priest who was convicted of abuse abroad and another is about the well-known case of a priest from Essen who, despite incidents in North Rhine-Westphalia, worked again as a pastor in Bavaria with children and young people# .

Particularly explosive: The experts assume that Ratzinger was not telling the truth in relation to the cases. According to the study, minutes of the meeting suggest that, contrary to what he himself claims, he was present at the delicate meeting in 1980 as Archbishop of Munich, at which it was decided that the priest should move to Bavaria. The priest later abused children there again and was convicted of it. Just a few days before the report was published, Benedikt had rejected all allegations against him through his private secretary Georg Gänswein. The lawyer Wastl said he considered Benedikt's statement that he was not present at this meeting to be "little credible".

"This is his personal Waterloo," said the renowned canon lawyer Thomas Schüller of the German Press Agency. “Joseph Ratzinger missed his last chance to come clean. He is convicted of untruth and thus unmasks himself as an active cover-up. He is doing irreparable damage to the Catholic Church and the papacy.”

The report gives the Catholic diocese a bad report overall.

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 people encounter hurdles." There is no active approach to the victims.

Pusch sees a "general interest in secrecy" and the "desire to protect the institution of the church".

Munich Vicar General Christoph Klingan was "moved and ashamed" on Thursday.

"In this hour, my thoughts are first with those affected, with the people who have experienced severe suffering in the church through church workers," he emphasized.

"Our first focus must be on those affected."

Catholic Church: Report on sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising

Update from January 20, 2 p.m.:

The Munich Vicar General Christoph Klingan was “moved and ashamed” after the presentation of an expert report on sexual abuse in the Catholic Archdiocese of Munich and Freising.

"In this hour, my thoughts are first with those affected, with the people who have experienced severe suffering in the church through church employees," he said on Thursday in Munich.

“Our first focus must be on those affected.”

The report commissioned by the diocese from the law firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl (WSW) comes to the conclusion that cases of sexual abuse in the diocese have not been dealt with appropriately for decades and accuses the former archbishops Friedrich Wetter and Joseph Ratzinger, who is now Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI., specific and personal misconduct in several cases.

The current archbishop, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, has also been accused of misconduct in two cases.

Despite being invited, he did not appear at the presentation of the report and wanted to comment on it later that afternoon.

First report from January 20, 12:15 p.m.:

Munich – A report weighs on the emeritus Pope Benedict XVI.

in four cases of misconduct in dealing with sexual abuse during his time as archbishop of the diocese of Munich and Freising.

The lawyer Martin Pusch said on Thursday when the report was presented in Munich.

In all cases, Benedict - then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger - strictly rejected any misconduct.

Catholic Church: New abuse report from Munich burdens Pope Benedict heavily

The report also accuses the former Archbishop of Munich and Freising, Cardinal Friedrich Wetter, of 21 cases of misconduct in dealing with sexual abuse. Wetter did not deny the cases, but misconduct on his part, said Pusch. Munich Archbishop Cardinal Reinhard Marx was also accused of misconduct in dealing with two suspected cases of sexual abuse. It is about reports to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome, as the law firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl (WSW), which prepared the report on behalf of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, announced on Thursday in Munich. (dpa/aka) *Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.

The parish council chairmen Wolfgang Lanzinger and Thorsten Berner are concerned about the abuse study* that the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising will publish.