Report on sexual abuse in German diocese faults retired pope

Published January 20, 2022 2:05 AM

By GEIR MOULSON
Associated Press

BERLIN (AP) — A long-awaited report on sexual abuse in Germany’s Munich diocese has faulted retired Pope Benedict XVI’s handling of cases when he was archbishop in the 1970s and 1980s. The law firm that drew up the report said that Benedict strongly denies any wrongdoing. The report also faulted the current archbishop, a prominent ally of Pope Francis, in two cases. The archdiocese commissioned the report from law firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl nearly two years ago, with a mandate to look into abuse between 1945 and 2019 and whether church officials handled allegations correctly. The report released Thursday said there were four cases in which Benedict — then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger — could be accused of misconduct.

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