Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, explains his misrepresentation in the Munich abuse report as an “accident”. The former Archbishop of Munich wrote in a statement to the experts that he was not present at a crucial Ordinariate meeting in January 1980, when it was a question of admitting a pedophile priest to the Archdiocese. However, the experts proved that Ratzinger was there; he also admitted this a little later. Now, in a statement released today, Ratzinger says a small group of “friends” wrote his 82-page statement “selflessly.” A mistake happened during the “huge job”. This error “was not intentional and is, I hope, also excusable”. Ratzinger writes, using the old spelling, about the reaction to the misrepresentation: “The fact that the mistake was used to doubt my truthfulness, yes, to portray myself as a liar, hit me deeply.” He is all the more grateful for the encouragement he has also received in the past few days.
With a view to the many victims who have experienced sexualized violence in the Catholic Church, Ratzinger writes: As in personal encounters with those affected, he could “only once again express my deep shame, my great pain and my sincere apologies to all victims of sexual abuse to express”. He had great responsibilities in the church. “All the greater is my pain about the offenses and mistakes that have happened during my terms of office and in the places concerned.”
The Pope Emeritus, who served as Archbishop of Munich and Freising from 1977 to 1982, is accused of misconduct in four cases of abuse in the abuse report by the Westpfahl Spilker Wastl law firm.