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Former Pope Benedict XVI admitted on Monday that he was in fact present at a meeting dating from 1980 where the case of a German priest suspected of sexual assault on minors had been raised.

This admission written in a letter published by his private secretary and quoted by the German Catholic agency KNA goes against his first statement made to the authors of an incriminating report published last week.

Benedict XVI “wants now to clarify that, contrary to what appears in (his) hearing, he participated in the meeting of January 15, 1980”.

According to the pontiff, his first declarations affirming that he was not present at this meeting were “objectively incorrect”.

But the latter does not want to speak of "bad faith" and evokes an "error", which would be "the result of an omission in the editing of his statements".

He says he is "sorry" and asks "to be forgiven".

Benedict XVI rejects all responsibility

According to this report published on January 20 by the firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl (WSW), which lists more than 400 victims of abuse in the archdiocese of Munich and Freising, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, before he became pope, was at aware of the pedocriminal past of a priest, Peter Hullermann, even if he has always denied it.

In 1980, this clergyman, suspected of serious child abuse, was transferred from North Rhine-Westphalia to Bavaria.

However, according to the protocol, quoted by the report, of Hullermann's admission meeting, his past was mentioned and Bishop Ratzinger was present.

If he now recognizes his presence, Benedict XVI maintains that “no decision has been taken on the attribution of a pastoral mission to the priest concerned”.

"Only the request to provide him with accommodation during his therapy in Munich was accepted," he said.

The 94-year-old pope emeritus, who has been living in seclusion in a Vatican monastery since his resignation in 2013, has not yet directly reacted to the substance of the report, having not had time to read it in full, according to his secretary. particular.

But he rejects all responsibility.

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