(Inés San Martín, Crux) According to the president of the German Bishops’ Conference, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI must apologize for his role in the sexual abuse scandal in the Church and accept his faults in the cover-up of cases. “He must make a statement, he must set aside the recommendations of his advisors and say clearly and simply: I bear guilt, I have made mistakes, I ask forgiveness from those affected,” Bishop Georg Bätzing told ZDF, the German public broadcaster. He made the statement following the publication of the report on sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Munich-Freising. The document, released Jan. 20, found that at least 497 people were abused in the German archdiocese between 1945 and 2019. (...)
