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Joseph Ratzinger on Monday admitted to giving false information about four cases of child sexual abuse occurring between 1977 and 1982, when he was archbishop of Munich and Freising.
Ratzinger said that contrary to what he had previously stated, he had attended the January 15, 1980 meeting where it was decided to transfer a priest who had been accused of sexually abusing minors in his diocese. He had previously stated that he had no information about the charges against the priest.
Ratzinger said that at that meeting it was decided to give shelter to the priest in question, Peter Hullermann, during his therapeutic treatment, which took place in Munich, but no decision was made to reassign him to “pastoral activity”. . In 1986 Hullermann was convicted of pedophilia, but continued to work in the parish after being released from prison.
Ratzinger said the erroneous statement was “the result of oversight in drafting his statement.”
A report by an independent German commission found that former Pope Benedict XVI was involved in concealing child abuse cases when he was archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1982.
Pope Benedict, then known as Josef Ratzinger, was accused by a commission set up by the German law firm Westpfahl Spilker lastl of at least four counts of child abuse.
After an almost 2-year investigation into the handling of sexual abuse allegations by the German Catholic Church, the commission announced its findings at a press conference in Munich.
The former pope answered the commission’s questions and denied any wrongdoing.
An earlier report commissioned by the German Catholic Church found that between 1946 and 2014, some 1,670 clergymen sexually assaulted 3,677 minors, mostly boys.
In Rome, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said the Holy See would pay “due attention” to the German report, “the contents of which I do not know at the moment.”
Stressing that it will be studied in detail in the coming days, Bruni said that the Holy See reiterated “its sense of shame and repentance”.
The Catholic Church has been rocked for decades by scandals involving the abuse of minors by priests and the systematic concealment of these crimes. Pope Francis, like his predecessor Benedict XVI, has promised zero tolerance for this issue.
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