Archbishop Georg Gänswein has the emeritus Pope Benedict XVI.

defended.

“Anyone who knows him knows that the accusation of lying is absurd.

You have to distinguish between a mistake and a lie," Benedict XVI's private secretary told the Corriere della Sera newspaper on Wednesday.

"There was this error, and unfortunately none of us noticed it," Gänswein told the newspaper.

At the same time he emphasized what Benedict XVI.

I have said and done all I can about pedophilia.

He was the first to strive for transparency in this field as Pope.

Nevertheless, according to Gänswein, there are people who want to destroy his person and his work.

Gänswein continued that certain people would never have loved the person, the theology and the pontificate of Benedict.

For the critics, now is "the ideal opportunity to settle accounts" and to curse the memory of the Pope.

“Unfortunately, many are fooled by this cowardly attack, there is a lot of dirt here.

It's a sad thing," Gänswein concluded.

Background is one of the former Pope Benedict XVI.

Letter published on Tuesday about the Munich abuse report.

In it, the Pope Emeritus apologized to those affected and expressed “deep shame” and “great pain”.

At the same time, the former pope defends himself against the accusation that, as Archbishop of Munich (1977-1982), he actively covered up cases of abuse.

"He thought of the victims of abuse"

In a separate letter, Benedict XVI's legal advisors explain how the much-cited error in the 82-page statement contained in the report came about.

Contrary to what was initially claimed in the statement on the report published by the Westpfahl Spilker Wastl (WSW) law firm at the end of January, Ratzinger was present at an important ordinariate meeting in 1980.

Benedict's private secretary Gänswein now said that when Benedict XVI.

When I wrote the most recent statement, I was thinking "of the victims of abuse".

"And he had before him, before his eyes, God himself. Man can deceive other men, but God cannot be deceived."

Essen Bishop: Indignant feedback

The Bishop of Essen, Franz-Josef Overbeck, on the other hand, criticized Benedict's statement.

"I fear that the declaration will be of little help to those affected in their processing," said Overbeck of the Catholic newspaper "Neues Ruhrwort".

"I am concerned that those affected by sexual violence reacted in their feedback to our intervention officer with disappointment and sometimes also with indignation at the statements made by the former Pope during his time as Archbishop of Munich and Freising."

He too had “waited with interest for a personal statement from Pope Emeritus Benedict”.

Now it is important "that we, who bear responsibility in the Catholic Church today, stand unequivocally by the serious institutional failure that has caused so much suffering in the Church".

Overbeck is one of the few German bishops who have so far positioned themselves on the Pope's letter.

“Pope emeritus Benedict had agreed to speak.

Now he has redeemed that," tweeted the chairman of the German Bishops' Conference (DBK), Georg Bätzing.

"I'm grateful for that and he deserves respect for that."

Criticism from those affected and ZdK

Ratzinger's successor in the office of Archbishop of Munich, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, also spoke only briefly.

"I welcome the fact that my predecessor in the office of Archbishop of Munich and Freising, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, commented on the publication of the report by the WSW Chancellery in a personal letter," he said.

In his letter, Ratzinger expresses his "deep shame", his "great pain" and his "apology to all victims of sexual abuse".