Benedict XVI backs down in statement and says he was in meeting about priest accused of abuse

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI reported this Monday (15) who, contrary to what he previously reported in a written statement to German investigators, attended a meeting in from January 720 in Munich to discuss the situation of a priest then suspected of pedophilia who was later convicted of that crime in 1980.

In a statement sent to the German Catholic news agency KNA, Georg Gänswein, Benedict XVI’s personal secretary, said the error was “the result of an oversight in editing his statement” and that the pope emeritus apologized.

However, Gänswein highlighted that no decision was taken at the meeting about the reassignment to pastoral duties of Father Peter Hullermann and that Benedict XVI will give more statements after reading in full an investigative report, released last week, which pointed out that the pope emeritus had been informed about priests who abused children in Germany at the time. in which he was Archbishop of Munich and Freising, between 1977 and 1982, but did not remove the suspects.

In statements to the German newspaper Die Zeit, the same that had published the accusations, Gänswein reported that the pope emeritus denied the accusation. Writing for the Catholic news agency Zenit, columnist and philosopher Jorge Enrique Mújica criticized alleged inconsistencies and sensationalism surrounding the report, prepared by the law firm Westphal Spilker Wastl.