Benedict XVI. Photo: Michael Kappeler; Europa Press

Benedict XVI Exonerated from Trial in Germany for Lack of Proof of Covering Up Abuses

In statements to the press, the Prosecutor said that the principal act was not verifiable and that, moreover, it was already prescribed.

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Joachin Meisner Hertz

(ZENIT Noticias / Munich, 21.03.2023).- Munich’s Prosecutor has not found “sufficient proofs of criminal acts,” in the accusation against Benedict XVI and two other ecclesiastics, of covering up sexual abuses against minors. The decision was ruled by civil justice after investigations were carried out from the report of abuses by the Archdiocese of Munich-Freising.

In statements to the press, the Prosecutor said that the principal act was not verifiable and that, moreover, it was already prescribed. “Hence, the defendants responsible were not questioned during these proceedings and, therefore, there were no start-up notifications either and completion of proceedings,” added Prosecutor Hans Kornprobst, who in addition pondered that there were no “sufficient suspicions of criminal action on the part of the personnel managers, specifically about Ratzinger, Cardinal Wetter and the then Vicar General, Father Gerhard Gruber.

Prosecutor Kornprobst said that from the facts exposed, which, moreover, were already known, “no criminally relevant behaviour can be deduced,” adding that in other cases  concrete evidence is lacking or is just rumours. 

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