Cardinal Joseph Aloisi Ratzinger – His name before he became Pope – did not undertake to rule out four ecclesiastics suspected of pedocinal acts in the German Archbishop he directed in the 1980s.
Le Monde with AFP
The Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is severely implicated in an independent report, presented Thursday, January 20 in Germany, on sexual assaults on minors in the archbishoprics of Munich and Freising, which he led between 1977 and 1982. The German Cardinal Joseph Aloisi Ratzinger – his name before he became Pope – did not undertake to avoid four ecclesiastics suspected of pedocinal acts, affirmed Westpfahl Spilker Wastl’s lawyers in this report.
In a reaction transmitted to the lawyers of this report mandated by the Church, the Emeritus Pope rejects “strictly” any liability: a position that the authors of the report do not judge “not credible”, declared at a conference of Press the lawyer Martin Pusch.
In two cases, they were members of the clergy who had committed several certified aggressions, including courts, “said Pusch. The two priests remained within the Church and nothing has been undertaken, he accused.
The experts were convinced that Joseph Ratzinger was aware of the pedocinal past of the priest Peter Hullermann, arrived in 1980 from North Rhine-Westphalia in Bavaria, where he continued abuse for decades without being worried. In 1986, a court sentenced him to a suspended prison sentence. He was then transferred to another Bavarian city. In 2010, this priest had been forced to retire.
Joseph Ratzinger denied having known the past of this priest, whose case had made the headlines in 2010, during the pontificate of Benedict XVI.
“Protect the institution Church”
The authors of the report also pinned Cardinal Reinhard Marx, current Archbishop of Munich and Freising, for having shown negligence vis-à-vis suspicions of sexual assault on children from two priests. This is precisely Cardinal Marx who sponsored the report. He must express himself on his conclusions in the day.
The lawyer Marion Wetspfahl denounced “the scary phenomenon of systematic concealments of cases of violence on minors between 1945 and 2019 – period covered by the report – aimed at” to protect the institution Church “. “Taking into account” victims “remains insufficient at many points of view, also after 2010”, when the first scandals of pedocimate in the German Church, added Mr. Pusch.
Following the publication of this report, the Vatican reiterated its “feeling of shame and remorse” on Thursday for the sexual violence committed by clerics on minors. “The Holy See ensures all the victims of its proximity,” said Matteo Bruni journalists, director of the Vatican press room, stating that the Vatican would take note of the report, of which he does not yet know the content. / p>
The Munich survey is a new chapter in the elucidation of pedocinal acts that affect the Catholic Church around the world. Four years ago, a report unveiled that at least 3,677 children had been victims of sexual assault since 1946 by more than a thousand clergy members in Germany. Most have never been sanctioned. Since then, each diocese has mandated local surveys.
After official excuses, the Church set compensation – considered insufficient by the victims – up to 50,000 euros per person, against 5,000 euros so far.
remains to know what consequences will have these revelations. Last year, the Archbishop of Hamburg Stefan Hesse, questioned for negligence in the treatment of pedocimate cases in the diocese of Cologne, where he had officiated, had resigned to Pope Francis, who refused him. Cardinal Marx had also resigned in June to “share the responsibility of the disaster of sexual abuse”. Here too, the pope has declined.