Photo: Pope Benedict XVI, Courtesy, Top News.in

VATICAN CITY — Two German lawyers have filed charges at the International Criminal Court against Pope Benedict XVI. Christian Sailer and Gert-Joachim Hetzel, both from Benedict’s home state of Bavaria, have charged Benedict with three counts of crimes against humanity.

Their 16,500-word document charges that the Pope “is responsible for the preservation and leadership of a worldwide totalitarian regime of coercion which subjugates its members with terrifying and health-endangering threats … the adherence to a fatal forbiddance of the use of condoms, even when the danger of HIV-AIDS infection exists … and … the establishment and maintenance of a worldwide system of coverup of the sexual crimes committed by Catholic priests and their preferential treatment, which aids and abets ever new crimes.”