Clerical Sex Abuse: Ex-Pope Benedict XVI appeals for forgiveness

By Matthew Eloyi

Ex-Pope Benedict XVI appealed for forgiveness on Tuesday for clerical child sex abuse that occurred when he was archbishop of Munich, but aides dismissed claims of a cover-up.

In a letter published by the Vatican, the 94-year-old said “I can only express to all the victims of sexual abuse my profound shame, my deep sorrow and my heartfelt request for forgiveness.”

The letter was revealed in response to a German inquiry last month that criticized the former pontiff’s handling of cases involving paedophile priests in the 1980s.

“I have had great responsibilities in the Catholic Church. All the greater is my pain for the abuses and the errors that occurred in those different places during the time of my mandate,” he wrote.

Organisations representing abuse victims, however, criticised the lack of specifics in his comments.

German group Eckiger Tisch said Benedict continued a Catholic Church tradition of declaring that “there were acts and faults, but no one takes concrete responsibility”.

Last month, a German investigation accused the former pope of intentionally failing to stop four priests accused of child sex abuse when he was archbishop of Munich between 1977 and 1982.

Benedict, who is feeble, enlisted the help of a team of assistants to respond to the long conclusions of law firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl (WSW), which was tasked by the archdioceses of Munich and Freising to investigate abuse from 1945 to 2019.

In a statement released Tuesday, the aides asserted that “as an archbishop, Cardinal Ratzinger was not involved in any cover-up of acts of abuse,” referring to the pope by his birth name, Joseph Ratzinger.