Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on Tuesday sought forgiveness from victims of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church but rejected allegations that he was involved in any cover-up.

“I have borne great responsibility in the Catholic Church. My pain is all the greater for the misdemeanours and errors that occurred during my terms of office and in the places concerned,’’ he said in a statement released by the Vatican.

A report prompted by sexual abuse allegations in the German Catholic Church accused the pope of misconduct on four counts during his time as archbishop of Munich and Freising between 1977 and 1982.

Pope Benedict, known then as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger expressed his “deep shame’’ and “great pain,’’ as well as his “sincere request for an apology to all victims of sexual abuse.”

The former pope also commented on accusations that he had lied about his participation in a meeting concerning the transfer of a priest from Essen in North Rhine Westphalia to Bavaria.

Experts from the law firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl (WSW) believed that Mr Ratzinger reassigned priests who had abused children to other areas during his time as archbishop of Munich and Freising.

“The expert report contains no evidence to support an allegation of misconduct or assistance in a cover-up,’’ they said. “As archbishop, Cardinal Ratzinger was not involved in any cover-up of acts of abuse.’’

These accusations were categorically denied by Mr Ratzinger’s lawyers and advisers in a “fact check’’ also published on Tuesday.

In a short statement, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the current archbishop of Munich, welcomed the ex-Pope’s statement while stressing how seriously his diocese is taking the independent experts’ findings.

(dpa/NAN)