Court in Germany will determine who is the legal successor to Pope Benedict
Abuse proceedings: Lawyers are looking for Ratzinger's heirs
The lawyers of the late Pope want to clarify the question of legal succession "within the next 3 months". A hearing was scheduled for the end of March. Now the abuse proceedings before the district court in Traunstein against those responsible in the Catholic Church could be postponed by three months.
The search for the heirs of the late Pope Benedict XVI. is obviously more complicated than expected. It could "be clarified within the next 3 months," says a letter from the district court in Traunstein, which CORRECTIV, Bayerischer Rundfunk and Die Zeit have received. The law firm of the late Pope Hogan Lovells told the district court "by telephone" that "the proceedings could be started within the next 3 months".
The ex-Pope's lawyers are currently trying to clarify who will be determined as Benedict XVI's legal successor. At the request of the lawyers, the abuse lawsuit could now be postponed by three months.
Information about the sex offenses was available
In June last year, the abuse victim Andreas Perr sued the former priest Peter H., the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising and Benedict XVI. He wants to have it established that he is entitled to claims for damages. Background: The convicted abuser, Hullermann was deployed to the Upper Bavarian Parish of Garching in the late 1980s, where he abused the plaintiff and other boys, although the bishops of the archdiocese and the then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger and later Pope had information about the priest’s sexual offenses.
On 28 March 2023, the hearing for the declaratory judgment is planned before the district court in Traunstein. However, it must be clarified before the trial who will take over the procedure for the deceased ex-Pope. This is because in civil proceedings, the heirs of a deceased defendant must face the proceedings.
In a letter available to CORRECTIV, the BR and Die Zeit, the regional court therefore asks those involved in the proceedings whether the proceedings against the legal successors of the late Pope should be separated or whether the hearing date on March 28th should be postponed. If separated, the lawsuit against H, the Archdiocese and the former Bishop of Munich, Friedrich Wetter, would be heard independently of the lawsuit against the late Pope's legal successor. The deadline for responses is this Thursday.
The lawyer of the plaintiff, Andreas Schulz speaks out against a "separation", but wants "nevertheless to negotiate together on March 28th, 2023". "The hearing in March opens up "the possibility of a timely conclusion of the legal dispute, provided that an appropriate solution is found for the plaintiff," writes the plaintiff's attorney to the District Court. That would then end the proceedings against the other defendants as well. The Archdiocese had already announced that it would pay "an appropriate compensation for pain and suffering in recognition of the plaintiff's suffering".
The plaintiff's lawyer also doubts that the legal successor to the deceased Pope will actually be identified in three months.
In January, the law firm Hogan Lovells had already considered a separation of the proceedings against the “legal successors” of the deceased Pope “for reasons of procedural economy” to be inappropriate. At that time, the lawyers wrote that they were "trying" to "clarify the issue of legal succession in the short term" and three months ago still assumed that they would keep the "proposed date for the oral hearing on 28 March 2023.
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