Pope Benedict XVI estate: German courts have no jurisdiction

A former altar boy from a town in Bavaria (Garching an der Alz) accuses his former parish priest of having sexually abused him in the mid-1990s. Since the priest had already been convicted of a similar offence, the plaintiff holds not only the priest himself responsible, but also the church leadership, which had transferred the obviously dangerous offender to Garching. The lawsuit was therefore also filed against the then Archbishop of Munich, Joseph Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI.

In order to continue the proceedings after the Pope's death, the plaintiff applied to the Munich District Court for the appointment of an estate administrator to determine his heirs. The District Court did not consider itself internationally competent, since the deceased had his habitual residence at the time of his death and continuously since 2005 in Vatican City, an independent state (see Art. 4 of the EU Succession Regulation). There are also no assets in Germany, as the former Pope had transferred everything to a foundation.

The court also examined an emergency jurisdiction under Article 11 of the EU Succession Regulation and rejected it, as it would be reasonable for the plaintiff to initiate proceedings in Vatican City to determine the heirs. Although the microstate is an absolute monarchy without a separation of powers, it has four independent courts (source: NJW Spezial, 455/2024, SZ of 19 June 2023).

Back