The Regional Court of Traunstein, in Bavaria (Germany), has provisionally suspended the judicial process in which it had requested the deposition of the recently deceased Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI over a lawsuit filed by a man who was abused by a priest who was allegedly covered up by the ex-pope.
The law firm that defended Benedict XVI, who died at the age of 95 last Dec. 31, has asked for the proceedings to be suspended until a legal successor is determined, a court spokesman confirmed Tuesday.
Thus, the proceedings against the other accused ecclesiastical leaders continue.
The investigations began following a complaint by a Bavarian man, now 38 years old but a minor at the time, against priest Peter Hullermann, whom he accuses of having sexually abused him in the 1970s and 1980s.
The German court sought to legally discern the responsibility for the omission in the case of both the pope emeritus and his successor, Cardinal Friedrich Wetter.
The complaint includes a report on the priest, published in January, which also gives an account of other abuses committed by church officials of the archdiocese. According to the investigations, instead of handing the priest over to civil justice, diocesan officials transferred him to other places, keeping him active as a priest.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
