Ex-Pope Benedict Under Scrutiny In German Probe Into Child Sex Abuse
NDTV
Germany's Catholic Church has been rocked by a string of reports in recent years exposing widespread abuse of children by clergymen, with the newest investigation placing ex-Pope Benedict XVI, the archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1982, in the spotlight.
A potentially explosive report into the handling of child sex abuse in the Catholic Church will on Thursday be published in Germany, with former Pope Benedict XVI among those in the spotlight.
The report by law firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl (WSW) will analyse how abuse cases were dealt with in the archdiocese of Munich and Freising between 1945 and 2019.
The Munich archdiocese, which commissioned the report, said it will examine "whether those responsible complied with legal requirements... and acted appropriately in dealing with suspected cases and possible perpetrators".
Ex-Pope Benedict -- whose civilian name is Josef Ratzinger -- was the archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1982.