Probe blames Pope Benedict XVI for his clerical sex abuse failures as archbishop

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Pope Benedict XVI mishandled four cases of clerical sexual abuse during his tenure as archbishop in Germany, an investigation has found that blames him for failing to investigate and punish the abusers.

The church-commissioned investigation by a Munich law firm, released on Thursday, said that in two cases priests under the authority of the future pope were criminally prosecuted for abuse while being allowed to remain in ministry priestly. At least one has reoffended after being readmitted to service.

The charges threaten to cast a shadow over the record of the former pope, who for more than two decades before his election oversaw church discipline against clerical abusers. His alleged mistakes in Munich reinforce the image of an overly disengaged manager whose papacy ended amid accusations of corruption and incompetence among Vatican officials. Advocates say he showed greater awareness of the abuse problem when he left Munich to become the Vatican’s anti-abuse czar and persuaded Saint John Paul II to toughen Church laws on discipline aggressors.

The report by law firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl, commissioned by the Archdiocese of Munich-Freising, studies the handling of clerical sexual abuse cases in the archdiocese from 1945 to 2019.

Pope Benedict submitted 82 pages of written responses to questions from investigators regarding his tenure as Archbishop of Munich-Freising from 1977 to 1982. Benedict, now 94, retired as pope in 2013 and lives in the Vatican.

In 1980, Benedict XVI, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, took part in a meeting where it was decided to readmit a priest accused of abuse to the ministry, according to Ulrich Wastl, one of the lawyers who led investigation and published the report. at a press conference in Munich on Thursday.

Benedict said he was not present at the meeting, but Mr. Wastl said that was unlikely. The attorney cited a protocol from the meeting indicating that Benedict XVI was present and spoke at the meeting.

When the priest’s case was first made public in 2010, the archdiocese said the future pope was unaware of the priest’s reinstatement and that his top administrator at the time assumed responsibility. full responsibility.

In his written responses, Benedict denied wrongdoing in any case, said Martin Pusch, another attorney involved in the investigation.

The future Pope Benedict XVI was Archbishop of Munich-Freising in Germany from 1977 to 1982. Photo: Gerhard Rauchwetter/DPA/Zuma Press

Benedict’s responses indicated he had an excellent memory of decades-old events, the lawyers who conducted the investigation said. Much of it reads like a legal defense statement that was aided by Benedict’s legal advisers, Wastl said.

The Vatican, which handles media inquiries for the former pope, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on specific references to Benedict in the report or at the press conference.

In a second case investigated during the investigation, a cleric convicted outside Germany was commissioned by the Archdiocese of Munich, despite Cardinal Ratzinger being aware of his story, Pusch said.

Pope Benedict denied any responsibility in this particular case in his communication with the law firm. But Mr Pusch said his claim that he was unaware is difficult to reconcile with the findings of the investigation.

The report also blames other leaders in the archdiocese, including the current archbishop, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who it says has also mishandled cases of abuse by giving them insufficient oversight and transparency.

Marion Westpfahl, founding partner of the law firm, said she regretted that Cardinal Marx had declined an invitation to attend Thursday’s press conference in Munich, given what she called “interest comprehensible of those affected by the abuse to be recognized”.

Cardinal Marx was due to make a statement later Thursday. Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said the Vatican would conduct a “careful and detailed examination” of the document in the coming days.

Pope Benedict XVI speaks with Cardinal Reinhard Marx, right, during a visit to Germany in 2011. Photo: wolfgang radtke/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

After serving as Archbishop of Munich-Freising, future Pope Benedict became head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office, overseeing the discipline of clerical sex offenders around the world, until his election as pope in 2005.

Cleric sex abuse scandals have rocked the Catholic Church in Germany, particularly since a 2018 report commissioned by German bishops concluded that priests in the country abused at least 3,677 minors on seven decades.

This report has inspired a series of meetings of German bishops and laity, starting in 2020 and planned until next year, which discuss a series of possible church reviews, including the blessing of unions. homosexuals, the ordination of women clergy and a relaxation of the requirement of celibacy for priests.

In June, Cardinal Marx offered his resignation to Pope Francis as a way to take responsibility for the Church’s institutional failure to prevent clerical sexual abuse, but the pope told him to stay in office and continue. reform.

Jimmy Pliska, of Scranton, Pennsylvania, is one of those seeking compensation from the church for sexual abuse that occurred many years ago. If he agrees to a settlement, he fears he will never know the truth about his alleged attacker. Photo: Alexander Hotz/WSJ.

The abuse crisis has also affected the Archdiocese of Cologne, the largest in Germany. Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne came under fire in 2020 for refusing to publish a report on the archdiocese’s historic handling of sexual abuse, produced by the same law firm responsible for Thursday’s Munich report.

Cardinal Woelki commissioned and released a second report by another law firm, which found numerous errors in the handling of abuse cases by archdiocesan officials.

A Vatican investigation into the matter found the cardinal did not cover up the abuse but made major communications errors about it, prompting him to take a six-month leave that will end in March.

Earlier this week, Archbishop Stefan Hesse of Hamburg became the first German bishop to testify in court in a sex abuse case, relating to his former role as chief of staff of the Archdiocese of Cologne.

Archbishop Hesse admitted he made a mistake in 2010 by failing to report an accused abuser to the Vatican, as required by Church law. The priest was returned to the ministry and then allegedly abused at least one minor.

Write to Francis X. Rocca at [email protected] and to Bojan Pancevski at [email protected]

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