The Vatican has defended Pope
Emeritus Benedict XVI's record on combatting child sex abuse by
members of the clergy after he was criticised in a report
released in Germany last week.
The report on sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Munich and
Freising concluded that the former pontiff failed to take action
in four cases when he was Archbishop of Munich between 1977 and
1982.
An editorial on the Vatican News website by Andrea Tornielli,
the editorial director of the Dicastery for Communication,
stressed the efforts Benedict made to combat clerical
paedophilia and his willingness to meet and listen to the
victims.
"It cannot be forgotten that Ratzinger, who as Prefect of the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, had already fought
the phenomenon in the last phase of the pontificate of St. John
Paul II, with whom he had been a close collaborator, and once he
became Pope, promulgated very harsh norms against clerical
abusers, special laws to combat paedophilia," Tornielli wrote.
"What's more, with his concrete example, Benedict XVI testified
to the urgency of that change of mentality that is so important
to counter the phenomenon of abuse: listening and closeness to
the victims to whom forgiveness must always be asked...
"It was Joseph Ratzinger, the first Pope to meet several times
with victims of abuse during his apostolic journeys.
"It was Benedict XVI, even against the opinion of many
self-styled "Ratzingerians", who upheld, in the midst of the
storm of scandals in Ireland and Germany, the face of a
penitential Church, which humbles itself in asking for
forgiveness, which feels dismay, remorse, pain, compassion and
closeness".
Benedict has "corrected" his version of events regarding one of
the sexual-abuse cases that he was criticised for in the report,
regarding a priest who was put into service in the Munich
archdiocese even though he was known to be a paedophile.
The pope had told lawyers that prepared the report that he was
not at a meeting in January 1980 when the transfer of the priest
to Munich was discussed.
But the 94-year-old has admitted that he was at the meeting,
according to a report by Catholic agency KNA picked up by the
German-language version of Vatican News.
The former pope said the mistake "was not committed in bad
faith" but was "the result of an error in the editorial
drafting" of his statements, according to the report.
He is "very sorry" about this and apologizes, the report said.
Benedict has lived inside the Vatican since resigning as pope in
2013
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