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Breaking News / Former Pope Benedict XVI named in child abuse report

Breaking News / Former Pope Benedict XVI named in child abuse report

Benedict served as head of the Catholic Church from 2005 to 2013. He was recently mentioned in a child abuse report.

A child abuse report published in Germany on Thursday revealed that former Pope Benedict had failed to act in four cases of child abuse and sexual abuse.

The law firm Westphal Spilker Wastl, which conducted the investigation, said Benedict failed to prevent child abuse of minors during his tenure as archbishop of Munich and Freising from 1977 to 1982.

Benedict has denied the allegations.

Benedict XVI shocked the world in February 2013 when he resigned. He was the first pope to resign in almost 600 years. Attention quickly shifted from him to his successor Pope Francis. In the middle of the drama, a question never got fully answered - why did Benedict leave?

The official announcement of Pope Benedict's resignation spoke of a limitation of his physical and mental abilities, but it has long been suspected that there was more to it than that.

Discussions of the time when the Pope resigned were related to several scandals circulating.

Issue 1

The Vatileaks affair, in which the Pope's trusted cupbearer, Paolo Gabriele, had leaked confidential documents exposing the Vatican's power struggles. Gabriele was sentenced to prison. Could this have been a factor in his resignation?

Issue 2

While the headache had not yet ceased for the Pope who had a father-son relationship with Gabriele, another scandal ensued. Three cardinals prepared a 300-page report. It was supposed to be held by key, but an important Italian daily claimed at the time that it had been informed of its contents. Result? The information this time was more embarrassing. This time there were allegations of the existence of a network of gay priests performing shameful acts within the Vatican.

Received from DW.

News in update…