Former pope Benedict XVI is among those to be put in the spotlight when law firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl (WSW) will publish in Germany its potentially explosive report about how the Catholic Church handled child sex abuses.
Set to be published Thursday, the WSW report analyzed how child sex abuse cases were dealt with in the archdiocese of Munich and Freising between the years 1945 and 2019.
The former pope, whose civilian name is Josef Ratzinger, was the archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1982.
The report, which was commissioned by the Munich archdiocese, specifically focused on how the church handled the case of Peter Hullermann, a notorious pedophile priest.
From Essen in western Germany, Hullermann was transferred to Munich where he had been accused of abusing an 11-year-old boy. But despite this accusation, the priest has been reassigned to pastoral duties.
In 1986 when the former pope was transferred to the Vatican, Hullermann was convicted of molesting more children and was given a suspended prison sentence.
Even after the conviction, Hullerman continued to work with children for many years.
In the WSW report, Hullerman’s case is regarded as “a pertinent example of the mishandling of abuse by the Church.”
However, former pope Benedict denied knowing about Hullerman’s history.
Now 94 years old, Benedict became the first pope ever to step down from the role in 2013. He now lives a secluded life in a former convent inside the Vatican grounds.
The former pope was given a copy of the WSW report and in turn, submitted an 82-page statement in response to questions raised by WSW.
Georg Gaenswein, the former pope’s spokesperson, said Benedict “takes the fates of the abuse victims very much to heart and is fully in favor of the publication of the Munich report.”
Aside from the former pope, Friedrich Wetter, who was the archbishop of Munich and Freising from 1982 to 2007, is also included in the WSW report, along with Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the archbishop of Munich from 2007 until the present.
Last year, Marx offered his resignation to Pope Francis reportedly due to the church’s “institutional and systemic failure in handling child sex abuse scandals.”
However, Pope Francis did not accept Marx’s resignation, urging him instead to stay and help shape change in the Catholic Church.
In recent years, the Catholic Church in Germany has been rocked by a string of reports that exposed widespread abuse of children by clergymen.
Last year, another report was published which exposed the scope of abuse committed by priests in Germany’s top diocese of Cologne.
In 2018, a study commissioned by the German Bishops’ Conference concluded that 1,670 clergymen in the country had committed some form of sexual attack against 3,677 minors between 1946 and 2014.
However, the real number of victims is believed to be much higher.
Reports said payouts for victims of abuse have gone up from around 5,000 euros in the previous years to 50,000 euros ($56,700) in 2020.
Matthias Katsch, spokesperson for the victims’ group Eckiger Tisch, is calling for compensation to all the victims of these abuses instead of hollow words.
“Far too many children and young people have fallen victim to a system shaped by abuse of power, intransparency and despotism,” Katsch said.
Philippine News Network 