The Sourdough Initiative, which has pledged to deal with the abuse scandal in Garching an der Alz in Upper Bavaria, is asking Pope Francis to file a lawsuit in the Traunstein district court. Or as the “legal successor of Benedict XVI”, as stated in an open letter published on Saturday. “Your unconditional collaboration in a judicial clarification would be an important step that goes to the root of the devastating taboo and the trivialization of the extent of the abuses and removes the cover of paedocriminal structures within the clergy”, wrote those in charge of the initiative to Francis.
The purpose of the lawsuit is, among other things, to determine whether those responsible in the Munich-Freising archdiocese covered up the crimes and thus made further crimes possible. Shortly after the death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. the district court had stated that the case against Benedikt continues, at least for the time being. The reason: there is a legal representative; Joseph Ratzinger, as his real name was, hired a large law firm to represent him. However, his lawyers can ask for a break until it is clear who the heirs are. The lawsuit would then be directed against them in the future.
In the summer of last year, a man who said he was abused by the convicted repeat offender Priest H. in Garching an der Alz filed a civil action, a so-called declaratory action, in the Traunstein district court. It is directed against the condemned priest himself, against the Archdiocese of Munich-Freising, against former Archbishop Cardinal Friedrich Wetter – and it was also directed against Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who died on New Year’s Eve. He was archbishop in Munich when the attacker was transferred to the diocese.
