The civil lawsuit by a German abuse victim against a convicted abusive priest with links to the late pope Benedict XVI and representatives of the Catholic Church is now due before court on March 28.

The Traunstein Regional Court in the southern state of Bavaria set the trial date on Thursday in a case which is considered one of the most prominent in the abuse scandal involving the German Catholic Church.

The priest, a repeat offender convicted of sexual abuse identified by the initial H under Germany’s strict privacy laws, must appear in court.

“The personal appearance of the defendant priest and an informed representative of the defendant archdiocese has been ordered,” the court announced on Thursday.

Priest H was transferred from the western state of North Rhine Westphalia to Bavaria in the 1980s after accusations were made against him. At the time, the late pope Benedict XVI, born Joseph…