DUBLIN — Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation of an Irish bishop Wednesday for his failure to report child-molesting priests to police — and faced a renewed reminder of the German abuse case most closely linked to his own time in charge of Munich.
Bishop John Magee, who was secretary to Benedict’s three papal predecessors before returning to Ireland in 1987, apologized to victims of any pedophile priests who were kept in parish posts during his 23 years overseeing the Irish diocese of Cloyne.
“To those whom I have failed in any way, or through any omission of mine have made suffer, I beg forgiveness and pardon,” Ma gee, 73, said in his resignation statement. Government investigators are continuing to explore Cloyne abuse cover-ups.
Pope Benedict has yet to say anything about his handling of the Rev. Peter Hullermann, the case known to have developed on the pope’s watch in Germany when, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he oversaw the Munich Archdiocese from 1977 to 1982. Munich Archdiocese spokesman Bernhard Kellner said Wednesday that a new person has come forward claiming to have been abused in 1998 by Hullermann. Kellner gave no other details.
Hullermann had been accused of abusing boys in Essen, West Germany, in the 1970s when Ratzinger approved his 1980 transfer to Munich to receive psychological treatment for pedophilia. Hullermann was convicted in 1986 of abusing a youth, but church officials say the new abuse happened after Ratzinger was already promoted to higher duties in the Vatican.
In a related development, the German government announced Wednesday that it is forming a 40-strong panel of experts to investigate the extent of child abuse in Catholic and other institutions for children.
The commission will be asked to recommend reforms to Germany’s current statutes of limitations so that abuse victims can pursue priests and other church officials for civil damages and criminal liability.
Irish society is still debating the merits of Saturday’s message from Benedict apologizing for decades of unchecked child abuse by priests, nuns and other clerics. The letter criticized Irish bishops and promised a Vatican inspection of unspecified dioceses and religious orders in Ireland — but accepted no Vatican responsibility for promoting a culture of cover-up.
