Case which allegedly implicated Pope Benedict set for court at end of March

Trial against paedophile ex-priest begins in Traunstein

On 28 March, the trial against the ex-priest and abuser Peter H. begins at the Traunstein Regional Court. He must appear in person or send a lawyer. A representative of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising must also come.

The paedophile sex offender and former priest Peter H., who is alleged to have sexually abused several boys also in Garching an der Alz, must appear in person before the Traunstein Regional Court on 28 March. This was ordered by the Traunstein Regional Court. The background is the civil suit of one of the victims.

Ex-priest Peter H. and Archdiocese of Munich summoned

In a letter from the Traunstein Regional Court, which is available to the CORRECTIV editorial network, the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation and the weekly newspaper Die Zeit, the court asks not only the paedo-criminal ex-priest H. but also a "representative" of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising to come to Traunstein. Neither Cardinal Friedrich Wetter nor the legal successor of the late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI have been summoned to this appointment. Wetter had applied for the case to be dismissed on the grounds of official liability on the part of the Archbishopric. Benedict's lawyers had applied for a stay until a legal successor had been found.

The H. case is an example of how to deal with abusers

The H. case caused a stir throughout Germany because it is almost exemplary for the way the Catholic Church deals with abusers: the assaults on at least 29 boys were covered up for decades, although the priest's paedophilia had been on record in the Essen diocese since the late 1970s. Instead of suspending him, the Essen diocese management sent Peter H. to Munich for therapy in 1980. There he was transferred to several places in Upper Bavaria.

At the time of H.'s transfer to Munich, the Archbishop was Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI. He took part in a meeting in which the issue was discussed. Benedict XVI denied until the end that he knew of the priest's previous history; he also denied that he was aware that H. had been reassigned to pastoral care.

Abuse cases are already time-barred under criminal law

In 1986, the Ebersberg district court convicted him of sexual abuse of underage boys. But Peter H. was only transferred again, this time to Garching an der Alz. At that time, Friedrich Wetter was already Archbishop of Munich and Freising. When numerous cases of abuse within the Catholic Church became public in 2010, the H. case also caused outrage.

Criminally, the allegations are time-barred and can therefore no longer be dealt with in a criminal trial. However, the Berlin lawyer Andreas Schulz has now filed a civil declaratory action on behalf of a presumed victim of Peter H. and is claiming damages. The civil action was directed against the former priest, the Archbishopric of Munich and Freising, Cardinal Friedrich Wetter, but also against Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who has since died, or against his legal successor.

Peter H. could also send a lawyer to court

At the end of January, the Archbishopric of Munich and Freising announced that it would refrain from taking legal action in the case: The Archdiocese refrained from invoking the statute of limitations in the trial. The Archdiocese thus signalled that it wanted to find an appropriate solution for compensation for pain and suffering and damages.

Although the Traunstein Regional Court has ordered Peter H.'s "personal appearance", it is not yet clear whether the now 76-year-old will actually appear in court. He could, for example, send his lawyer. "I expect a former foot soldier of God to have the courage to look the plaintiff in the eye," said the plaintiff's lawyer Andreas Schulz.

Source