Former Pope Feels Ashamed Asks For Forgiveness About Child Sex Abuse
In all, he is shamefully asking for forgiveness. Pope Benedict XVI resigned in the year 2013. Investigations over a period of time have found him guilty of concealing sexual abuse during his reign as archbishop of Munich between 1977 and 1982.
He has acknowledged that errors occurred in handling sexual abuse cases when he was archbishop of Munich and asked for forgiveness, as his lawyers argued he was not directly to blame.
On Tuesday, The Vatican released a letter. The letter came after a report about former Pope Benedict’s sex abuse from 1945 to 2019 by German investigators. Investigators released the report just last month.
In the reports, they are accusing Benedict of knowingly failing to stop four priests alleged to involved themselves in child sex abuse when he was archbishop of Munich between 1977 and 1982. He failed to take disciplinary action as a leader.
The former Pope accepted his mistake, felt ashamed, and apologized asking for forgiveness. He said:
“I have had great responsibilities in the Catholic Church. All the greater is my pain for the abuses and the errors that occurred in those different places during the time of my mandate,” he wrote in the letter, his first personal response to the report.
I have come to understand that we ourselves are drawn into this grievous fault whenever we neglect it or fail to confront it with the necessary decisiveness and responsibility, as too often happened and continues to happen … once again I can only express to all the victims of sexual abuse my profound shame, my deep sorrow and my heartfelt request for forgiveness.”
Pope Francis has been very supportive to the former Pope in dealing with this sex abuse case.
In this respect, he has been very grateful that he is not dejected. Reports say he is in frail health but needs to settle down this case with his lawyers.
