5 things to know about Late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI

By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter Wednesday, January 04, 2023

Pope Benedict XVI holds his last general audience in St Peter's Square at the Vatican February 27, 2013. The weekly event which would normally be held in a vast auditorium in winter, but has been moved outdoors to St. Peter's Square so more people can attend. The pope has two days left before he takes the historic step of becoming the first pontiff in some six centuries to step down instead of ruling for life. | Reuters/Alessandro Bianchi

4. Benedict asked for forgiveness for clergy sexual misconduct that occurred during his leadership of a German Archdiocese

On Feb. 6, the Vatican released a statement from the Pope Emeritus weighing in on a report detailing clergy sexual abuse in the German Archdiocese of Munich-Freising, which Ratzinger led for five years.

In the letter, Benedict recalled how “in all my meetings, especially during my many Apostolic Journeys, with victims of sexual abuse by priests, I have seen at first hand the effects of a most grievous fault.”

He added, “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.”

“As in those meetings, 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,” he wrote. “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. Each individual case of sexual abuse is appalling and irreparable. The victims of sexual abuse have my deepest sympathy and I feel great sorrow for each individual case.”

Benedict thanked “a small group of friends” who compiled 82 pages of testimony on his behalf for a Munich law firm investigating sexual misconduct in the Archdiocese. He insisted that he would have been “unable to write” the testimony himself.

The Pope Emeritus acknowledged that when drafting the testimony, “an oversight occurred regarding my participating in the chancery meeting of 15 January 1980.” He stressed that “this error, which regrettably was verified, was not intentionally willed and I hope may be excused.” Benedict lamented that “this oversight was used to cast doubt on my truthfulness, and even to label me a liar.”

The Survivors Network of Abused Priests condemned Benedict’s apology as “faint” and suggested that it was a continuation of “the same pattern of abuse, institutional knowledge, and concealment” that it viewed as definitive of the Roman Catholic Church.