Retired pope asks pardon for abuse, but admits no wrongdoing

ROME (AP) — Retired Pope Benedict XVI is asking forgiveness for any “grievous faults” in his handling of clergy sex abuse cases.

But he is not admitting to any personal or specific wrongdoing after an independent report criticized his actions in four cases while he was archbishop of Munich, Germany.

Benedict issued a letter and his legal team issued a technical response to a Jan. 20 report from a German law firm that had been commissioned by the German church to look into how cases of sexual abuse were handled in the Munich archdiocese.

Benedict headed the archdiocese from 1977 to 1982. Benedict’s advisers insisted he "was not involved in any cover-up of acts of abuse.”