Pope Benedict XVI, on Tuesday, acknowledged that errors occurred in the handling of sexual abuse cases while he was Archbishop of Munich decades ago.
The former head of the Catholic Church, said he did not directly address allegations in a report that he mishandled four cases.
A separate analysis written by four collaborators, however, contests the specific allegations against him.
Benedict, 94 and infirm, issued a letter following the report released in January on abuse in the archdiocese from 1945 to 2019.
The reports included the alleged failure to take action in those cases by then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, when he was Munich’s archbishop from 1977-1982.
In a letter, he wrote his first personal response to the report saying; “I have had great responsibilities in the Catholic Church.
“All the greater is my pain for the abuses and the errors that occurred in those different places during the time of my mandate.”
In another section of the letter, he openly wonders if he, as all Catholics do in a prayer known as the Confiteor at Mass, should ask for forgiveness for what they hd done and what they failed to do “by my fault, by my most grievous fault”.
He added: “It is clear to me that the words ‘most grievous’ do not apply each day and to every person in the same way.
“Yet every day they do cause me to question if today too I should speak of a most grievous fault.”
He does not answer his own question, but says he is consoled that God forgives.
In the letter, Benedict said in spite of any mistakes he might have made, God would be the ultimate arbiter.
“Quite soon, I shall find myself before the final judge of my life,” he concluded.
After the German report was first issued, Benedict acknowledged that he had been at a 1980 meeting over a sexual abuse case when he was Archbishop of Munich, saying he mistakenly told German investigators he was not there.
At the time, Benedict’s personal secretary, Archbishop Georg Ganswein, said the omission was the result of an oversight in the editing of the statement and not done out of bad faith.
In Monday’s letter, Benedict said; “to me it proved deeply hurtful that this oversight was used to cast doubt on my truthfulness, and even to label me a liar.’’
