VATICAN CITY — Retired Pope Benedict XVI admitted Monday he attended a meeting in 1980 regarding a case of sexual abuse of a child.
The meeting happened when Pope Benedict was the archbishop of Munich, Germany.
In a statement published in the German Catholic newspaper, Die Tagespost, the former pope’s personal secretary Archbishop Georg Gänswein clarified that contrary to what was stated during a hearing, Benedict did attend the Ordinariate meeting.
This comes after a report faulted Benedict for not taking action against four abusive priests in Germany.
The newspaper reports that the former pope is “very sorry for his mistake.”
The priest involved in the investigation was allowed to resume pastoral work.
This is a decision that could have only been made with the consultation of the archbishop.
Gänswein said Benedict plans to explain how the error happened after he goes through the nearly 2,000-page report.
Benedict lives in the Vatican today.
He resigned from the papacy in 2013.