Munich An expert opinion is on the emeritus Pope Benedict XVI. misconduct in dealing with four cases of sexual abuse during his time as Archbishop of the Diocese of Munich and Freising. The lawyer Martin Pusch said on Thursday at the presentation of the report commissioned by the Archdiocese in Munich. In all cases, Benedict – then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger – strictly rejected any misconduct.
The Pope Emeritus was Archbishop of Munich and Freising from 1977 to 1982. Pusch emphasized that he had commented extensively on the allegations. This is included in the wording of the report.
Critics have been accusing Ratzinger of misconduct for some time – specifically when dealing with a priest from North Rhine-Westphalia. The man is said to have abused boys on many occasions and was transferred from North Rhine-Westphalia to Bavaria during Ratzinger’s tenure, where he was finally convicted of child abuse and is said to have repeatedly relapsed.
This case alone makes up 370 pages of the more than 1700-page report commissioned by today’s Archbishop Cardinal Reinhard Marx. Marx himself accuses the lawyers of misconduct in dealing with two suspected cases of sexual abuse.
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Cardinal Marx admits mistakes
As archbishop of Munich and Freising, he apologized for cases of abuse in his diocese. “I am shocked and ashamed,” he said on Thursday in Munich after the presentation of a sensational report on sexual abuse in the diocese over the past decades.
Conversations with those affected led him to see his church in a different light today: “For me, encounters with those affected by sexual abuse brought about a turning point. They have changed and continue to change my perception of the Church,” said Marx.
It has been known for years “that sexual abuse was not taken seriously in the church, that the perpetrators were often not properly held accountable, that those responsible looked the other way”.
“As I have said again and again, as Archbishop of Munich and Freising I feel responsible for the Church as an institution in recent decades,” he emphasized. “As the incumbent archbishop, I therefore apologize on behalf of the archdiocese for the suffering that has been inflicted on people in the area of the church in recent decades.”
In the coming week he wants to comment in more detail on the content of the report, which accuses him of misconduct in two cases and his predecessors Cardinal Friedrich Wetter and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, in several cases. “The abuse crisis is and remains a deep shock for the church,” said Marx. In the future, it must be about the renewal of the church, he said, also with a view to the synodal path reform process.
The cardinal of the diocese of Munich had commissioned an expert opinion in which the cases of abuse should be processed.
(Photo: dpa)
From the report, which is based on at least 497 people affected in the years 1945 to 2019, one wants to draw conclusions and “point out perspectives”.
The report, which examined the period between 1945 and 2019, also accuses Ratzinger’s direct successor as Archbishop of Munich, Cardinal Friedrich Wetter, of misconduct in 21 cases. Wetter did not deny the cases, but misconduct on his part, said Pusch. His colleague, the lawyer Ulrich Wastl, spoke of a “horrible record”.
The study lists at least 497 victims. The law firm announced that the majority of these were male children and young people who became victims during the decades of the investigation period. According to the study, 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.
The report also comes to the conclusion that many priests and deacons continued to be employed even after corresponding allegations became known. Despite this, 40 clerics were again active in pastoral care or this was tolerated. In 18 of them, this even happened after a “relevant conviction”, as lawyer Martin Pusch said. A total of 43 clerics failed to take “required measures of a sanction nature”.
The new report gives the Catholic Diocese a bad report. Even recently, there has been no “paradigm shift” with a focus on those affected, said Pusch. “Until recently, and in some cases still 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”.
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