How are we to interpret the revelation that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI misled a sex abuse inquiry? That might seem an odd question. What is there to ‘interpret’ about the former Archbishop Ratzinger’s decision 43 years ago to allow a child abuser, Peter Hullermann, to live in Munich after he was thrown out of the diocese of Essen in 1979 for molesting an 11-year-old boy? The priest subsequently reoffended after Ratzinger moved on from the diocese, becoming Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under John Paul II.
And shouldn’t we be shocked that a former pope told this huge inquiry into decades of abuse in Munich that he wasn’t at a meeting in 1980 that discussed Hullermann, when in fact he was? The 94-year-old retired pontiff has apologised for a ‘mistake for which he begs to be excused’. Well, we’ve heard that before, from scores of bishops who’ve tried to evade responsibility for their casual attitudes to predator priests.
