What is the Catholic Church to blame for the abuse scandal? A civil lawsuit filed by a person concerned at the district court in Traunstein deals with this major question. The court has now opened the preliminary proceedings in the matter and, among others, the emeritus Pope Benedict XVI. asked for an opinion.
“The defendants have the opportunity to indicate their willingness to defend themselves within two weeks, after which they have four weeks or one month to respond to the complaint,” said court spokeswoman Andrea Titz. Previously, Bayerischer Rundfunk, the Correctiv research center and the time reported about it.
The man’s civil lawsuit, a so-called declaratory lawsuit, was filed in the summer. It is directed not only against Benedict, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, but also against his successor in the office of Archbishop of Munich and Freising, Cardinal Friedrich Wetter. The lawsuit was also served on the archdiocese earlier this week, as a spokesman confirmed. He said “that we are not commenting on an ongoing legal proceeding”. At first, Ratzinger’s private secretary Georg Gänswein did not respond to a request from the German Press Agency for the required statement.
The plaintiff is a man from Bavaria who claims to have been sexually abused as a child by priest H. – he is also one of the defendants. The H. case was the most sensational in the report on cases of abuse in the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, which was published in January of this year. The convicted abuser had been transferred several times and had relapsed several times.
An initiative supports the plaintiff financially
Pope Benedict – who was Archbishop of Munich and Freising from 1977 to 1982 – also got into trouble because the report showed that he was present at a meeting dealing with the man. However, the ex-Pontifex denied knowing about his crimes. In a letter he apologized to the victims of sexual abuse. However, he firmly rejected concrete allegations of cover-up against himself. The plaintiff, on the other hand, states in his statement of claim that Ratzinger, as a cardinal, “had knowledge of all the circumstances” and “at least accepted with approval that this priest was a repeat offender”.
The man is supported by the Garchinger Initiative Sauerteig. “The sourdough initiative supports the plaintiff financially by paying the fees for filing the lawsuit,” said Rosi Mittermeier from the initiative. “We are very curious to see whether and how Joseph Ratzinger will express himself and how things will continue afterwards.” In Garching, Upper Bavaria, Pastor H. was reinstated after a previous conviction for abuse – and according to the findings of the Archdiocese, abused children again.
A so-called declaratory action is not about criminal prosecution, but the church’s guilt in cases of abuse could possibly be determined. According to the complaint, the fate of the plaintiff is exemplary for a large number of people affected by church sexual abuse from the 20th century to the present day. The fact that the court has now initiated written preliminary proceedings means “no substantive assessment of the chances of success of the lawsuit by the court,” emphasized justice spokeswoman Titz. “So whether the asserted claim for a declaratory judgment exists despite the statute of limitations for any claims for damages or compensation for pain and suffering is only the subject of the further proceedings.”