EX-PONTIFF ACCUSED OF MISHANDLING ABUSE CASES

A report released Thursday accused Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI of mishandling at least four cases of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests when he was the archbishop of Munich, according to the law firm that conducted an investigation.

Benedict, known then as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, was archbishop of Munich and Freising, Germany, from 1977 to 1982 and had oversight over the clerics. In at least some of the cases in question, the report said Benedict had failed to discipline the abusive clerics.

Accusations of Benedict’s mismanagement of abuse cases as archbishop have hounded him for years, including during his papacy, as has criticism that he did not do enough to hold bishops accountable for covering up abuse in the church. But Thursday’s report, commissioned by the Munich church, is the first formal accusation that Benedict failed to discipline abusive priests and allowed them to continue their ministry without restrictions.

“In a total of four cases, we came to the conclusion that the then-archbishop, Cardinal Ratzinger, can be accused of misconduct,” said Pusch, one of the report’s authors.

The law firm, Westpfahl Spilker Wastl, which drafted the report, said that Benedict had firmly denied any wrongdoing.

Despite the many criticisms, Benedict has also been credited with dismissing some accused clerics, and he was the first pope to apologize for abuse and meet with victims.

He is also not the first pope to have faced accusations of mishandling abuse, and some of the allegations against him are not new.

In March 2010, the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, dismissed as an “attack” news media reports questioning Benedict’s role in handling abuse when he was archbishop of Munich in 1980 and later as prefect of the Vatican’s doctrinal office.

After the report was released Thursday, a Vatican spokesperson, Matteo Bruni, said the Holy See would read and examine it in the coming days and give it “due attention.”

“In reiterating the sense of shame and remorse for the abuse of minors committed by clerics,” Bruni said, “the Holy See ensures its closeness to all the victims and confirms the path taken to protect the little ones, guaranteeing them safe environments.”

The firm’s report on the handling of clerical abuse of minors in the diocese of Munich and Freising, which covered the period from 1945 to 2019, also accused other senior church figures in the diocese of mishandling sexual abuse cases.