The admission got here in a remark to the Catholic Information Company by way of his personal secretary Archbishop Georg Gänswein, who stated the mistake had “now not been made from malicious intent,” however used to be the “the results of an error within the editorial processing of his remark” to the impartial investigation commissioned through the Archdiocese of Munich-Freising.
He’s “very sorry” for this and requested to be excused, Gänswein stated.
Benedict XVI, referred to as Joseph Ratzinger ahead of turning into pope, plans to factor an in depth remark at a later date, Gänswein stated, including that Benedict requested for working out that the entire evaluate of the 1,900-page file nonetheless wanted time.
The studying of the file up to now, the remark stated, fills him “with disgrace and ache in regards to the struggling” inflicted at the sufferers.
Benedict, now 94, become the primary Pope in centuries to surrender when he stepped down in 2013.
His tenure used to be overshadowed through an international sexual abuse scandal within the Catholic Church, and the investigators’ findings — which now without delay implicate him in a failure to forestall and punish abuse — threaten to break the recognition of the previous pontiff.