In the civil proceedings before the district court in Traunstein, a person affected by abuse is demanding a total of 350,000 euros from the Catholic Archdiocese of Munich and Freising and the heirs of the late Pope Benedict XVI. This was confirmed by the man’s lawyer, Andreas Schulz, of the German Press Agency. had previously correctiveBavarian Radio and The time reported on the claim and quoted from a corresponding brief.
The plaintiff is demanding 300,000 euros from the archbishopric and 50,000 euros in compensation from the heirs of the pope emeritus who died on New Year’s Eve.
The man states that he was abused by the convicted repeat offender Priest H. almost 30 years ago in the parsonage in Garching an der Alz in Upper Bavaria. According to the claim in the brief, the plaintiff should be compensated for “all material and immaterial damage” that he “arose from the act of abuse in the period between 1994 and 1996 and will arise in the future”.
Benedict XVI, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1986, helped ensure that the convicted priest was reinstated in a community. This made it possible for him to abuse the current plaintiff, according to the argument. The Archdiocese had not referred to the statute of limitations in the process and thus cleared the way for a process.
The trial is scheduled to begin on June 20
“The archdiocese is willing to pay appropriate compensation for the suffering of the plaintiff and to find an appropriate solution for further claims for damages,” it said. The trial is scheduled to begin on June 20 at the Traunstein District Court. Until then, the court has yet to decide whether to separate the case against Pope Benedict. Because so far it is still not clear who will take over his inheritance and thus also inherit the lawsuit.
According to Benedikt’s estate administrator, his longtime private secretary Georg Gänswein, some of Ratzinger’s cousins are possible heirs. So far, according to information from several media, a cousin has turned down the inheritance. Attorney Schulz had requested the separation of the proceedings. In addition to Ratzinger and the Archdiocese, abusers H. and Ratzinger’s successor as Archbishop of Munich and Freising, Cardinal Friedrich Wetter, are also defendants in the proceedings.