BERLIN (AP) — Retired Pope Benedict XVI has acknowledged that he did attend a 1980 assembly at which the switch of a pedophile priest to his then-diocese was mentioned, saying an editorial error was chargeable for his earlier assertion that he wasn’t there.
Authors of a report on sexual abuse between 1945 and 2019 within the Munich archdiocese, which Benedict — then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger — led from 1977 to 1982, on Thursday faulted his dealing with of 4 instances throughout his time as archbishop and mentioned his declare that he wasn’t on the assembly lacked credibility.
Benedict, who supplied prolonged written testimony, denies any wrongdoing on his half.
One case concerned the switch to Munich of a priest to bear remedy, which was authorised underneath Ratzinger in 1980.
The priest was allowed to renew pastoral work, a choice that the church has mentioned was made by a lower-ranking official with out consulting the archbishop. In 1986, the priest obtained a suspended sentence for molesting a boy.
In an announcement to Germany’s KNA Catholic information company on Monday, Benedict’s longtime secretary, Monsignor Georg Gaenswein, mentioned the retired pope needs to make clear that he was in actual fact at January 1980 assembly of native church officers during which the priest’s switch to Munich was mentioned. He mentioned Benedict apologizes for the error.
“He want to stress that this didn't occur out of any unhealthy intent, however was the consequence of a mistake within the editorial processing of his assertion,” Gaenswein mentioned.
Gaenswein confused, nevertheless, no resolution on the priest resuming pastoral work was made on the assembly and that it solely authorised him being put up in Munich throughout his remedy.
Gaenswein added that Benedict remains to be studying rigorously by way of the report and can want a while to complete doing so. He added that there can be an announcement from the previous pope on the report and that it additionally will spell out how the inaccurate assertion in regards to the assembly occurred.
The assertion to KNA was reported by the Vatican’s in-house Vatican Information portal.