The emeritus pope is considered by some to be the chief investigator of abuse in the Catholic Church. A report weighs heavily on him now. Ratzinger critic Reisinger hopes for an end to the myth of Benedict.
Munich/Cologne – The author and Ratziger critic Doris Reisinger hopes after the presentation of the Munich abuse report that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI will be viewed differently.
“The hammer of this report is: We now know that Ratzinger is willing to lie publicly in order to discharge his responsibility,” Reisinger told the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger” (Friday). “How brazen or how desperate do you have to be to do something like that?”
Together with the filmmaker Christoph Röhl, Reisinger wrote the book “Only the Truth Saves” about the role of Joseph Ratzinger, now the Pope Emeritus, in the abuse scandal of the Catholic Church.
Undeserved reputation as chief scout
After Benedikt’s statements in the report, she now hopes for an end to the “myth” of the chief reconnaissance officer. This reputation of Ratzinger is unbroken in wide circles to this day.
The report commissioned by the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising itself and commissioned by the law firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl (WSW) comes to the conclusion that cases of sexual abuse in the diocese have not been dealt with appropriately for decades; it accuses the former archbishops Friedrich Wetter and Ratzinger of specific and personal misconduct in several cases. Ratzinger denies any wrongdoing.
The current archbishop, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, has also been accused of misconduct in two cases. The experts speak of at least 497 victims and 235 alleged perpetrators, but assume that there are significantly more unreported cases.
Reisinger called for legal and political consequences in the newspaper: “Will politicians and the judiciary drop the kid gloves with which they have been handling the church for too long?” she said. “The time for expert opinions is over.” dpa
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