https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64107731 In April 2019, he blamed clerical sexual abuse - the scandal he had tried to tackle as a cardinal - on "the all-out" sexual freedom of the 1960s, and the consequent rejection of God's teaching. Three years later, a report commissioned by the Catholic Church accused Benedict of having failed to act to prevent instances of child abuse while archbishop of Munich in the 1970s. The former Pope denied the claims.