EX-POPE BENEDICT ADMITS FALSE STATEMENT DURING CHILD ABUSE PROBE TESTIMONY

Tue 25 January 2022:

Former Pope Benedict XVI admits to lying to a child sex abuse investigation when he said he incorrectly told German authorities he did not attend a meeting in 1980 while he was the archbishop of Munich.

The confession came on Monday, after a report issued last week on abuse in the archdiocese from 1945 to 2019 found that when Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was archbishop between 1977 and 1982, he neglected to take action against clerics in four cases of alleged abuse.

The statement, which was given to the German-language Catholic News Agency (KNA), said the false information was not given “with ill intent.”

FORMER POPE BENEDICT FAILED TO ACT OVER ABUSE, NEW REPORT FINDS

One case involved the transfer of a priest to Munich for therapy, which Ratzinger approved in 1980.

The priest was allowed to resume pastoral activity, a decision taken by a lower-ranking official without contacting the archbishop, according to the Vatican. The priest was given a suspended sentence for molesting a kid in 1986.

At a news conference in Munich on Thursday, lawyers who investigated the abuse contested an assertion by Benedict in an 82-page statement that he did not recall attending a meeting in 1980 to discuss the case of an abuser priest. They said this contradicted documents in their possession.

Benedict did attend the meeting, according to the former pope’s personal secretary, Archbishop Georg Ganswein, who stated the exclusion “was the result of an oversight in the editing of the statement” and “not done out of bad faith.”

At the 1980 conference, Ganswein stated, no decision was made about a new assignment for the priest, merely a request for him to be accommodated while undergoing therapeutic treatment.

“He (the former pope) is very sorry for this mistake and asks to be excused,” Ganswein said.

He said Benedict planned to explain how the error happened after he finished examining the nearly 2,000-page report, sent electronically last Thursday.

Benedict, 94, infirm and living in the Vatican, resigned from the papacy in 2013.

“He is carefully reading the statements set down there, which fill him with shame and pain about the suffering inflicted on the victims,” Ganswein said. A complete review “will take some time due to his age and health,” he added.

Presenting the report last Thursday, lawyer Martin Pusch said Ratzinger had done nothing against the abuse in four cases and there appeared to be no interest shown to injured parties.

“In a total of four cases, we have come to the conclusion that the then-Archbishop Cardinal Ratzinger can be accused of misconduct in cases of sexual abuse,” said Pusch.

“He still claims ignorance even if, in our opinion, that is difficult to reconcile with the documentation.”

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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