Religious would have led German archdioceses that were the scene of sieges between 1977 and 1982 and would not have taken action to remove abusers clerics from positions
Or papa emeritus Benedict XVI was severely criticized in an independent report presented this Thursday, 20, in the Germany on sexual assaults against minors in the archdioceses of Munich and Freising, which he led between 1977 and 1982. Then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, before becoming pope, did nothing to remove four clerics suspected of sexual abuse against minors, lawyers for the report commissioned by the Church at a press conference. In a statement sent to lawyers, the pope emeritus “strictly” rejected any responsibility, a position that the authors of the report do not consider “credible”, according to lawyer Martin Pusch. In two cases, those involved were members of the clergy who had committed several proven aggressions, including by the courts, he said. The two priests remained inside the Church and nothing was done, he accused.
The experts said they were convinced that Ratzinger was aware of the pedophile past of Father Peter Hullermann, who arrived in 1980 from North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria, where he continued to abuse for decades unmolested. In 1986, a court sentenced him to a suspended prison term. But he was then transferred to another city in Bavaria, where he is said to have reoffended. It was only in 2010 that this priest was forced to retire. Joseph Ratzinger denied knowing the priest’s past, whose case made headlines in 2010, at the time of the pontificate of Benedict XVI. The report’s authors also point to Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the current archbishop of Munich and Freising, for being negligent in two cases of priests suspected of child sexual abuse. Overall, the report denounces the systematic cover-up of cases of violence against minors between 1945 and 2019 with the aim, according to them, of “protecting the institution of the Church”. “Recognition of victims remains insufficient from many points of view, even after 2010”, when the first pedophilia scandals were revealed in the German church, he considers.
*With information from AFP
Source From: Jovempan
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