Pope Benedict says – I was present at the meeting where the priest accused of child sexual abuse was discussed;
Pope Benedict XVI, 94, finally admitted that he had attended a meeting in 1980 to discuss Priest, who is accused of child sexual abuse. A few days ago, a report from a German law firm quoted the pope as saying he was not part of any such meeting. By changing the above statement, Benedict clarified: This is due to an error in editing my statement.
Benedict was archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1982. Four incidents of child sexual abuse were reported during this period. Later, the church itself handed over the investigation to a German law firm. He made the report public after showing it to the church.
Secretary Mohammad issued a new statement
The pope has previously said that he does not consider these issues to be the subject of discussion. He further added that he had made no mistake in handling the matter. Now his secretary, George Genswain, has issued a new statement quoting the pope, saying “something went wrong with the editing of the previous statement.” There is no bad motive behind this. We apologize for this.
In the investigation, the role of another archbishop, who is now the current pope, a close ally of Pope Francis, has also been questioned. The church itself conducted the first investigation into the matter. This German law firm was tasked with investigating cases from 1945 to 2019. Special instructions were given to see to it that the high officials of the church were discharging their duties properly.
The four cases of negligence against the former pope are all related to child abuse. So Benedict’s name was Joseph Rattinger and he was Archbishop of the Church of Munich. He held this position from 1977 to 1982. There are allegations that these crimes took place while he was archbishop. Not only that, all those who have been accused are still holding important positions in the church.
Pope Benedict is now 94 years old and lives in the Vatican. In the Catholic Church’s 600-year history, Benedict was the first pope to resign in 2013. However, the cause was said to be fatigue.
His tenure as pope was interrupted by allegations of sexual harassment against priests, a controversial lawsuit against Butler’s release of personal documents, and a demand for greater participation of women in the church.
The report alleges that Archbishop Cardinal Reinhardt of Munich failed to act in two cases. In this case, Marx also offered his resignation to Pope Francis in June 2021. Francis did not accept the resignation. A few days earlier, he had changed the Vatican’s criminal law. The law has been extremely strict in the case of sexual harassment.
