Vatican City, Mar 26, 2010 / 11:16 am
Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi said Friday that nothing has changed, responding to a New York Times report that claims to reveal new information about how then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was more connected to the handling of the case of a sexually abusive priest than was previously believed.
Earlier on Friday morning, the Archdiocese of Munich also refuted any further links or new information concerning the assignment of the known pedophile, Fr. Peter Hullerman, to another parish in 1980.
The Times reports that when then-Cardinal Ratzinger was Archbishop of Munich he was copied on a memo relating the information that Father Peter Hullerman would be placed in a parish just after starting "medical-psychotherapeutic" treatment for his involvement in child sex abuse.
After accusations from three different sets of parents that Fr. Hullerman had molested their sons, it was requested in Dec. 1979 that he be transferred from the Diocese of Essen to the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising to receive psychiatric help. The Pope served as the Archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1982.