A broad debate has erupted in Germany after former Pope Benedict XVI corrected a central statement he made on the Munich abuse report presented last week.

Retired Pope Benedict XVI said he was present at a 1980 meeting to discuss the transfer of a priest accused of misconduct, amending an earlier statement in which he said that he was not in attendance.

In a previously scheduled speech to the Vatican office that handles sex abuse cases, Pope Francis did not refer to the findings of a long-awaited report into how the Munich archdiocese handled abuse cases.

The annual audit tracks not only new charges of abuse but also how well U.S. dioceses and eparchies are observing child protection protocols established in 2002 by the U.S.C.C.B. in accordance with its “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.”

A law firm’s report on how abuse cases were handled in the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising faualted retired Pope Benedict XVI, with lawyers accusing him of “misconduct” in four cases during his tenure as Munich archbishop.

In the first testimony ever given by a German Catholic bishop in a court case on abuse, Archbishop Stefan Hesse admitted having made mistakes in the case of an offending priest on trial.