Legal action agst Benedict XVI heirs to proceed in Germany

(ANSA) - ROME, JAN 2 - Legal action against late ex-pope Benedict XVI for allegedly ignoring clerical sex abuse during his time as archbishop of Munich between 1977 and 1982 is to proceed against any heirs he may have, a German court told ANSA Monday.
    Asked whether the late former pontiff had heirs, a spokesman for the court at Traunstein said "this is yet to be established".
    The spokesman, Andrea Titz, said a man who said he was the victim of a proven predator priest, Peter H., had cited Benedict in a civil court under his birth name of Joseph Ratzinger.
    The aim of the complaint is to establish whether the late pope, who died on New Year's Eve aged 95, was guilty of covering up abuse cases.
    Benedict's papacy from 2005 until his sensational resignation on February 11, 2013, was dogged by global Catholic sex abuse scandals.
    Accused of inaction, the late pontiff became the first pope to meet victims.
    He also took action against what he called the "filth" in the Church, but courted controversy by blaming it on the sexual revolution of the 1960s. (ANSA).