Benedict, 94, currently lives in seclusion in an old monastery on the Vatican premises
A potentially devastating study into the management of child sex abuse in the Catholic Church will be released in Germany on Thursday, with former Pope Benedict XVI among those named.
The legal firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl (WSW) will conduct an investigation of how abuse accusations were handled in the archdioceses of Munich and Freising between 1945 and 2019.
The archbishop of Munich, which commissioned the investigation, stated that it will look into "whether those responsible complied with legal obligations... and behaved responsibly in dealing with suspected instances and potential perpetrators."
From 1977 through 1982, ex-Pope Benedict, whose civilian name is Josef Ratzinger, served as archbishop of Munich.
During this period, a now-famous paedophile priest called Peter Hullermann was sent to Munich from Essen in western Germany, where he had been accused of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old boy.
Despite his history, Hullermann was moved to pastoral responsibilities.
Ratzinger was convicted of abusing additional minors in 1986, by which time he had been moved to the Vatican, and sentenced to a suspended prison term.
Even after his imprisonment, he continued to work with children for many years, and his story is viewed as an example of the Church's mismanagement of abuse.
Benedict has denied knowing anything about the priest's past.
- 82-page declaration
According to German media sources, the ex-pope issued an 82-page reply in response to WSW questioning.
According to his spokesperson Georg Gaenswein, the pope emeritus "takes the destiny of the abuse victims extremely seriously" and is "completely in favor of the disclosure of the Munich report."
Benedict, 94, became the first pope in 600 years to resign in 2013, and currently lives in seclusion in a disused convent within the Vatican premises.
The reformist Catholic organization "Wir sind Kirche" (We are Church) demanded that the ex-pontiff accept responsibility for what occurred while he was in charge of the diocese of Munich.
"An acknowledgment by Ratzinger that he was personally and professionally implicated in the suffering of many young people by his acts or inactions, knowledge or ignorance, would be... an example for many other bishops and responsible persons," it said in a statement.
In recent years, Germany's Catholic Church has been rocked by a slew of studies exposing rampant priest abuse of minors.
According to a 2018 report commissioned by the German Bishops' Conference, 1,670 pastors in the nation perpetrated some sort of sexual assault against 3,677 kids between 1946 and 2014.
- "Systemic failure"
The true number of casualties, however, is considered to be substantially higher.
Another investigation, issued last year, revealed the extent of abuse committed by priests in Germany's most powerful diocese, Cologne.
Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the current archbishop of Munich and Freising, resigned last year in protest at the church's "institutional and systemic failure" in resolving child sex abuse crises.
Pope Francis, on the other hand, turned down his offer, pushing the cardinal famed for his reforms to stay and assist create change in the Catholic Church.
Marx, who has served as archbishop of Munich since 2007, may also face examination in the WSW study.
Friedrich Wetter, who served in the position from 1982 until 2007, is still alive.
The abuse issue has stymied the Catholic Church's efforts in Germany to drive major changes.
It still has 22.2 million followers in 2020, making it the largest religion in the country, but that is 2.5 million less than in 2010, when the first significant wave of paedophile abuse cases surfaced.
Payouts for victims of abuse were increased to up to 50,000 euros ($56,700) in 2020, up from roughly 5,000 euros previously, but activists argue the amount is still insufficient.
Prior to the release of the Munich study, the Eckiger Tisch victims' organization appealed for "compensation rather than hollow platitudes."
"Far too many children and young people have been victims" of a system "formed by abuse of power, intransparency, and authoritarianism," said Matthias Katsch, a group spokesperson.
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SOURCE: yahoo
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