The “Initiative Sourdough” appeals to the retired Pope Benedict XVI to participate in the judicial processing of the abuse case of Peter H. The deadline for comments is next week.
The “Initiative Sourdough” from Garching an der Alz has an appeal to the retired Pope Benedict XVI. directed to participate in the judicial processing of the Peter H. case. “Dear Pope emeritus Benedict, please face the secular court,” says a letter that the initiative, according to its spokeswoman Rosi Mittermeier, sent to Rome on Saturday. “As we understand it, forgiveness requires active repentance and leads to concrete efforts to make amends for those affected.”
The initiative supports the complaint of a 38-year-old man who claims to have been abused by the convicted repeat offender Priest H. He had filed a civil action, a so-called declaratory action, at the Traunstein District Court in the summer. The court has meanwhile initiated preliminary proceedings and asked the Pope Emeritus for an opinion. The whole thing no longer has any criminal significance, but the question is whether those responsible are partly to blame.
The pedophile H. was sent from the diocese of Essen to the archdiocese of Munich and Freising for therapy purposes in 1980, when Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was archbishop of Munich. Despite his previous history, H. was reinstated in pastoral care and worked for 20 years in Garching an der Alz, where he again became violent. According to the “Sauerteig” initiative, the deadline for Ratzinger to comment is next week.