Ex-pope Benedict XVI asked has begged for forgiveness over the clerical child sex abuse committed on his watch, however, his aides have rejected allegations of a cover-up while he was archbishop of Munich.
In a letter published by the Vatican which was obtained by Africa Daily News, New York, 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 from the former pontiff — who retired sometime in 2013 — was released in response to a German inquiry last month that criticised his 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.
However, organisations representing abuse victims 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”.
Read Also: Priests, nuns must report sex abuse – Pope Francis
Africa Daily News, New York recalls that last month’s German investigation accused the former pope of knowingly failing to stop four priests accused of child sex abuse when he was archbishop of Munich between 1977 and 1982.
Benedict, who is in frail health, asked a team of aides to help him respond to the lengthy findings by law firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl (WSW), charged by the archdiocese of Munich and Freising to examine abuse between 1945 and 2019.
The aides insisted in an accompanying statement Tuesday that ‘as an archbishop, Cardinal Ratzinger was not involved in any cover-up of acts of abuse’, using the pope’s birth name, Joseph Ratzinger.
AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK
