In 1980, no misconduct case before him was more troubling than that of Peter Hullermann, a thirty-three-year-old priest who had been transferred to Munich for psychiatric care after he admitted molesting an eleven-year-old boy in the northwest German city of Essen. Church authorities there eventually accused him of “indecent advances” toward several other boys. Ratzinger’s staff accepted responsibility for supervising Hullermann during his treatment by a Munich psychiatrist. Archdiocese records confirm that on January 15, 1980, Ratzinger led the meeting in which Hullermann’s transfer to Munich was approved. In accordance with church policy at the time, there was no consideration in either Essen or Munich of referring Hullermann to the police. Nor was there any thought of forcing him to leave the priesthood, even though Ratzinger’s staff was explicitly warned that Hullermann was likely to continue molesting boys. One document described him as a “clear danger” to children.
Despite those warnings, church records made public decades later showed that just days after arriving in Munich, Hullermann was allowed to resume his full priestly duties, with no restriction on his access to children. He went on to molest at least a dozen more boys across Germany. Years later, Ratzinger would claim ignorance of the details of Hullermann’s case, but his top deputies could not. The cardinal’s records showed that his chief personnel officer, Father Friedrich Fahr, had been determined to find a way to preserve Hullermann’s career despite his confession that he was a child molester. Fahr wrote in 1980 that while the young priest required urgent psychiatric care, he should be treated with “understanding,” since he was a “very talented man.”
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