Vatican defends Pope Benedict in German abuse scandal

Pope Benedict has had to deal with sex abuse scandals in various countries

The Vatican has denounced attempts to link Pope Benedict to a child abuse scandal in his native Germany.

A Vatican spokesman said there had been "aggressive" efforts to involve the Pope, but added: "It's clear that these attempts have failed."

The Holy See's prosecutor told Avvenire newspaper that "to accuse the current pope of hiding (abuse cases) is false".

The Pope's former diocese earlier said he once unwittingly approved housing for a priest accused of child abuse.

The episode dates back to 1980 when he was archbishop of Germany's Munich and Freising diocese, and known as Joseph Ratzinger.

However a former deputy said he - not the future pope - made the decision to re-house the priest, who later abused other children and was convicted.

'Defamation'

The Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, told Vatican Radio: "There have been those who have tried, with a certain aggressive persistence, in Regensburg and Munich, to look for elements to personally involve the Holy Father in the matter of abuses."

The repeated employment of H in priestly spiritual duties was a bad mistake Gerhard Gruber Former vicar-general in Munich and Freising

Monsignor Charles Scicluna, the Vatican's prosecutor, told Avvenire - a newspaper affiliated with the Church - that accusations that the pontiff had helped cover up abuse were "defamatory".

He added that the future Pope "showed wisdom and firmness in handling these cases".

Following a report in the Munich-based Sueddeutsche Zeitung, the diocese of Munich and Freising confirmed earlier this week that then-Archbishop Ratzinger had let the priest, known only as H, stay at a vicarage in Munich for "therapy".

H had been suspected of forcing an 11-year-old boy to perform a sex act upon him in the northern city of Essen.

While he was in Munich, between February 1980 and August 1982, no wrongdoing was reported.

He was then transferred to the town of Grafing, where he was relieved of his duties in 1985 after allegations of child sex abuse, the diocese said.

In 1986, he was given an 18-month suspended jail sentence and a fine for sexually abusing minors, details of which were not given by the diocese.

Archbishop Ratzinger's former deputy, Gerhard Gruber, has taken responsibility for initially allowing H to remain within the Church, saying this had been "a bad mistake".

Speaking to the Associated Press news agency, he added that there had been about 1,000 priests in the diocese at the time and that the archbishop "could not deal with everything".