The head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis, today promised justice for victims of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, and German authorities are considering launching further investigations after an independent investigation found that retired Pope Benedict XVI failed to act in four cases of abuse he knew about while he was archbishop in Munich.
In the long-awaited report on sexual violence in the archdiocese of Munich, accusations were made against former Pope Benedict XVI, who was archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1982.
It is said that he knew of priests who abused children and who, despite this, remained in their positions, and the church remained silent on these accusations.
Law firm Westphal Spilker Wastl, which produced the report, said the former pope still denies having committed or knew of any criminal act.
The day after the report was released, Pope Francis met with Vatican officials who deal with sexual abuse cases.
In his speech, Francis did not refer to the report, but stated that the church continues to notice cases of sex offenders at that institution.
"The Church, with God's help, fulfills its obligation with firm determination to provide justice to the victims of abuse by its members, applying with special care and rigor the foreseen canonical legislation," Francis said.
He added that the norms have been improved to make the handling of cases of abuse more effective.
Prosecutors in Munich announced today that they are investigating 42 cases of possible wrongdoing by church officials stemming from the report.
Spokeswoman Anne Leiding told German news agency DPA that the cases were referred to them by the law firm that prepared the report.
The law office announced yesterday that the cases are about living people who are still holding positions in the church.
The spokeswoman for German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Kristiane Hofmann, said today that these allegations should be urgently investigated.
The Vatican has not yet reacted to the report, and it has been announced that it will read it carefully in the coming days.
Benedict's secretary, Monsignor Georg Genswein, said the former pope also had not read the report but would do so.
He added that Benedict, who also provided information to the authors of the report, was upset and embarrassed by the scandal.
During Benedict's service at the head of the Catholic Church, in 2010, the issue of sexual abuse in the ranks of the church was raised, which caused a great scandal.
He had earlier, in 2001, however made the then-revolutionary decision to take responsibility for prosecuting abuse cases after realizing that bishops around the world were not punishing abusers, but merely moving them from parish to parish and allowing them to reoffend.
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