Pope Benedict XVI apologizes for clerical abuse but admits no personal responsibility

4 yıl önce

ROME â Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on Tuesday expressed his âprofound shameâ to the victims of clerical abuse, and said he was pained by âerrorsâ that occurred in various places across his career in the church. But he stopped short of acknowledging any specific personal responsibility after a church-commissioned German report accused him of mishandling four cases during his time running the archdiocese of Munich between 1977 and 1982.

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âHowever great my fault may be today, the Lord forgives me, if I sincerely allow myself to be examined by him, and am really prepared to change,â Benedict, 94, wrote.

At the same time Tuesday, a legal and academic team that had assisted Benedict offered a full-throated defense of the retired pope, saying that Benedict â known then as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger â was never involved in any âcover-up of acts of abuse.â The canon lawyers and academics said the German investigation was short on evidence to prove its claims.

Benedict XVI corrects earlier statement, admits to presence at 1980 meeting to discuss abusive priest

Benedict, who stepped down as pope in 2013, has been under renewed scrutiny for weeks because of the Munich report, which detailed decades of abuse in the archdiocese. Though a series of popes dating back to John Paul II have been ensnared by the global abuse crisis, never had a future pope been accused in such detail of mishandling specific cases.

The letter from the academics and canon lawyers, which was emailed to reporters by the Vatican, amounts to the first direct pushback in defending Benedictâs legacy.