Archdiocese is facing proceedings and is willing to pay damages

In a press release, the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising declared that it would waive the “defense of the statute of limitations” and promised to “pay the plaintiff appropriate compensation for pain and suffering.” The lawyer for the abuse victim Andreas Perr sees the statement of defense by the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising and the waiver of the declaration of the statute of limitations in the abuse proceedings before the district court in Traunstein as a success.

“With today’s response from the Archdiocese, the plaintiff’s strategy worked,” says his lawyer Andreas Schulz, “also because the deceased Cardinal Ratzinger was and still is the icon of the legal dispute.” Attorney Schulz says that the plaintiff is not opposed to an out-of-court settlement.

In the statement of defense, which CORRECTIV and Bayerischer Rundfunk have received, the Archdiocese accepts “the liability for its church officials” for the trial in Traunstein, in the event that the court determines the responsibility of the officials at the time.

Background: In the 1990s, the former priest Peter H. forced the then 12-year-old plaintiff Andreas Perr to watch a pornographic film in the parsonage in the Bavarian community of Garching an der Alz. H. had been transferred to the parish, although the Archdiocese had been informed about the dangerous nature of the pedo-criminal priest.

Last June, the Berlin lawyer Schulz for Andreas Perr filed a declaratory judgment as reported exclusively by CORRECTIV, BR and Zeit. The Archdiocese of Munich and Freising had repeatedly appointed H. as a priest in parishes, despite known abuses and a conviction. The lawsuit was directed against the former priest, the archdiocese, Cardinal Friedrich Wetter, but also against the late Pope emeritus Benedict XVI.

The waiver of the statute of limitations comes as a surprise. In documents available to CORRECTIV and the BR – minutes of a conference of the archdioceses in September 2022 and a letter in reply from the lawyers of the archdiocese of Munich and Freising to the plaintiff’s lawyer in December – it was said that the archdiocese did not want to waive the objection.