The admission got here in a press release to the Catholic News Agency through his non-public secretary Archbishop Georg Gänswein, who stated the error had “not been made out of malicious intent,” however was the “the result of an error in the editorial processing of his statement” to the unbiased investigation commissioned by the Archdiocese of Munich-Freising.
He is “very sorry” for this and requested to be excused, Gänswein stated.
Benedict XVI, referred to as Joseph Ratzinger earlier than turning into pope, plans to challenge an in depth assertion at a later date, Gänswein stated, including that Benedict requested for understanding that the entire assessment of the 1,900-page report nonetheless wanted time.
The studying of the report to this point, the assertion stated, fills him “with shame and pain about the suffering” inflicted on the victims.
Benedict, now 94, grew to become the primary Pope in centuries to resign when he stepped down in 2013.
His tenure was overshadowed by a worldwide sexual abuse scandal within the Catholic Church, and the investigators’ findings — which now immediately implicate him in a failure to forestall and punish abuse — threaten to wreck the fame of the previous pontiff.
