Bishop Georg Bätzing, president of the German Bishops’ Conference stated in an interview with ZDF, that Benedict’s problem throughout his ministry has been the tendency to surround himself with inadequate advisors.
Newsroom (03/02/2022 10:35 AM) – The president of the German Bishops’ Conference, Bishop Georg Bätzing, says that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI must apologize for his role in the sexual abuse scandal in the Church and accept his faults in the cover-up of cases.
“He must make a statement, he must set aside the recommendations of his advisors and say clearly and simply: I bear guilt, I have made mistakes, I ask forgiveness from those affected,” Bishop Georg Bätzing told ZDF, the German public broadcaster.
He made the statement following the publication of the report on sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Munich-Freising. The document, released Jan. 20, found that at least 497 people were abused in the German archdiocese between 1945 and 2019.
The report found that on three occasions, then-Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger – now Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI – failed to act accordingly, instead of covering up for priests who had committed abuses and allowing them to continue working. There was a fourth case in which his actions were called into question, but the investigators cleared him of wrongdoing.
Bätzing, in an interview with ZDF, stated that he believes Benedict’s problem throughout his ministry has been the tendency to surround himself with inadequate advisors.
The bishop criticized the former pontiff, saying he hopes “that Pope Benedict has noticed what confusion and outrage his various statements have left behind in our country.”
At the same time, Bätzing called on Benedict to distance himself from his advisers: “I hope that he will disregard his advisers” and deliver a clear statement: “I made mistakes and ask for forgiveness.”
It is not the first time the bishop has criticized Ratzinger. The day after the publication of the report, he had said that it is now absolutely clear “quite how disastrously the Church had behaved,” including church leaders, “right up to an emeritus Pope.”
“I am ashamed that we have such a past and in order to re-establish our credibility, we must … unrelentingly face the truth however painful that may be,” Bätzing said.
After the publication of the report, Pope emeritus Benedict XVI admitted that a previous statement on his participation in a meeting that discussed an abusive priest was “objectively incorrect.”
The 95-year-old Pope emeritus is expected to release a statement once he’s had time to read the 1,900 pages report made available to him the day it was published.
Six days after the report came out, the Vatican released a statement, signed by Andrea Tornielli, editorial director of the Dicastery for Communication, defending Benedict XVI’s record on abuse.
Tornielli argued that the report was an important contribution to “the search for justice in truth and to a collective examination of conscience on the errors of the past.” However, he warned, “the reconstructions contained in the Munich report, which — it must be remembered — is not a judicial inquiry nor a final sentence, will help to combat pedophilia in the church if they are not reduced to the search for easy scapegoats and summary judgments.”
Though Benedict toughened legislation against clerical abuse of minors during his later years as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and then as Pope, many critics fault him for being late in leading the reform.
In his editorial, Tornielli wrote that during the investigation, Benedict “did not evade the questions” and provided an 82-page response regarding his time leading the Munich Archdiocese.
Compiled by Saju Hasmukth