Pope Benedict failed to act over child abuse, report says

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Pope Benedict XVI is accused in a new report of failing to act over child sexual abuse during his time as archbishop of the diocese of Munich and Freising.

The report says that Benedict, who was Archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1982 and then called Joseph Ratzinger, knew of child-abusing priests who remained in active pastoral care roles under his watch in southern Germany.

“In a total of four cases, we came to the conclusion that the then-archbishop, Cardinal Ratzinger, can be accused of misconduct,” said Martin Pusch, one of the authors of the report.

The current archbishop of Munich, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, commissioned the report, which also accused him of misconduct. The investigation was carried out by an external law firm. Benedict also provided investigators with written testimony.

At least 235 alleged perpetrators were uncovered in the Archdiocese of Munich, according to the report, which examined the diocese on sexual abuse and the handling of complaints in the period from 1945 to 2019. The study discovered a minimum of 497 victims.

A similar report published last year in France found more than 200,000 cases of sexual abuse by clergy in the Catholic Church.

Source: Politico