Former Pope Benedict XVI asks “forgiveness” to victims of sexual assaults committed when he had responsibilities

He asks “sorry”. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI addressed, Tuesday, February 8, the victims of sexual assaults committed by members of the clergy when he had responsibilities in the Church. “My pain is all the greater for the sexual violence and mistakes that have taken place during my tenure,” writes Joseph Ratzinger, in a letter dated Sunday and made public two days later by the Vatican. The 94-year-old German theologian speaks out less than three weeks after the publication of a report accusing him of inaction in the face of violence against minors in the archdiocese of Munich.

While he was Archbishop of Munich, Joseph Ratzinger was only involved in “no concealment” of sexual violence against minors by clerics, assured four advisers in a document published Tuesday by the Vatican. These refer to information “inaccurate” contained in the German report. However, in their report 8,000 pagesLExperts say they are convinced he was aware of the pedophile past of priest Peter Hullermann, who arrived in 1980 in Bavaria, where he continued abuse for decades without being worried.

The former pope, however, acknowledged having “looked straight in the eye at the consequences of a very big mistake”. And, he pointed out, “I learned to understand that we ourselves are drawn into this great fault when we neglect it or when we do not face it with the necessary decision and responsibility, as has too often happened and still happens. “. “I can only express, once again, to all the victims of sexual abuse my deep shame, my great pain and my sincere request for forgiveness”he wrote.