The prosecutors closed the inquiry on March 21, saying they were unable to substantiate the accusations made against Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in an independent report early last year due to lack of evidence or the statute of limitations.

Ratzinger, who was archbishop of Munich-Freising from 1977-82 before working in Rome and eventually becoming pope, was accused of making "bad decisions" regarding abusive priests in four cases of sexual abuse during his time in Bavaria.

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They said his response reflected the Catholic hierarchy's "permanent" refusal to accept responsibility for the rape and sodomy of children by priests.

Benedict's letter received a lukewarm reception from bishops in Germany, while victims' organisations expressed disappointment, anger and dismay.

Victims accused the former Cardinal Ratzinger of still not taking direct responsibility for abuses there.

Bishop of Essen, Franz-Josef Overbeck told the Catholic newspaper Neues Ruhrwort that he fears Benedict's statement won't help abuse victims work through what happened to them.

Overbeck said he notes with concern that "people affected by sexual violence have reacted with disappointment and in some cases also indignation to the former pope's comments on his time as archbishop of Munich and Freising".

A member of the victims' advisory board of the archdiocese, Richard Kick, said in a radio interview on Tuesday that those affected by sexual abuse were being fobbed off, while the Pope Emeritus was glorifying himself.

Kick said that Pope Benedict's statement had caused him "deep indignation and even more frustration". He pointed out that he had assumed no responsibility for cases in which serial abusers had been reinstated in pastoral care.

In his statement, Benedict asked forgiveness on Tuesday for any "grievous faults" in his handling of clergy sex abuse cases but denied any personal or specific wrongdoing. Yet the Pope's apology has disappointed and angered victims.

"I have had great responsibilities in the Catholic Church. All the greater is my pain for the abuses and the errors that occurred in those different places during the time of my mandate.

"Each individual case of sexual abuse is appalling and irreparable. The victims of sexual abuse have my deepest sympathy, and I feel great sorrow for each individual case".

His statement came after an independent report criticised his actions in four cases while he was archbishop of Munich, Germany.

The ‘Munich Report' faulted the handling of decades of abuse cases by a string of church officials, including Cardinal Ratzinger.

Benedict, 94, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, headed the archdiocese from 1977 to 1982.

The report faulted Benedict's handling of the cases and accused him of misconduct for failing to restrict the four priests' ministry even after they had been convicted criminally.

The Bishop of Limburg, the Most Revd Georg Bätzing, who chairs the German Catholic Bishops' Conference, tweeted: "Pope Emeritus Benedict had promised to speak out. Now he has kept his promise. I am grateful for that, and he deserves respect".

The present Archbishop of Munich and Freising, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, also welcomed the letter.

But, he emphasised that he took the report very seriously, "which also deals with personal and institutional responsibility, especially with regard to the leadership level" and that he and the diocese would act on the recommendations, together with victim organisations.

Sources

• Church Times
• Religion News Service
• HuffPost

Bishop Rogello Livieres Plano incardinated Fr Carlos Urrutigoty in Ciudad del Este diocese in 2005, where he was later appointed vicar-general.

Recently the Vatican suspended ordinations to the priesthood in the diocese, following an apostolic visitation ordered by Rome.

The diocese subsequently defended itself, saying Fr Urrutigoity "came recommended by some cardinals with functions in the Holy See (one of them, elected a few days later Successor of Peter)".

The Vatican, through the apostolic nuncio, and "with the consent of the excardinating bishop", authorised the incardination, the diocese stated.

A diocesan review board in Scranton found an abuse allegation credible a decade ago.

Fr Urrutigoity's alleged offending involved an adult, not a child, the diocese maintained, so his case was never referred to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Bishop Plano has always believed him to be innocent.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was to become Pope Benedict XVI.

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During most of the past seven years, however, that anticipated upheaval has seemed a lot like the dog that didn't bark. Back in February 2006, the late Fr. Richard John Neuhaus famously voiced "palpable unease" among those most elated by Ratzinger's election, and that disappointment endured in a swath of Catholic opinion which had begun to despair that the pope would ever impose order.

Of late, however, many observers believe the "real Ratzinger" has finally come out to play. Consider the tumult of the past month:

• On April 18, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith decreed a sweeping overhaul of the Leadership Conference for Women Religious, the main American umbrella group for the superiors of women's orders, to correct what the congregation described as LCWR's "corporate dissent" on issues such as women's ordination and homosexuality, and its contamination by "radical feminism."
• At least five Irish priests have faced Vatican-inspired discipline, with implementation left to their religious orders. Two Redemptorists have seen their writings for a church magazine either withdrawn or limited (one was also dispatched to a monastery for a six-week "reflection"), a Passionist prominent in the English media is now subject to prior censorship, and both a Marist and a Capuchin have been told to stop writing and speaking on certain hot-button topics.
• On April 5, Benedict XVI included some blistering language in his Holy Thursday homily about a "call to disobedience" issued by more than 300 priests and deacons in Austria who oppose celibacy and support women's ordination. The pope called the effort "a desperate push to do something to change the church in accordance with (their) own preferences and ideas." Continue reading

Sources

• John L Allen Jr in National Catholic Reporter
• Image: NY Daily News