TheJakartaPost

Please Update your browser

Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.

Jakarta Post

German Catholics rocked by damning report on child sex abuse

Isabelle le Page and Deborah Cole (Agence France-Presse)
Berlin, Germany
Fri, March 19, 2021

Share This Article

Change Size

German Catholics rocked by damning report on child sex abuse A sculpture by artist Jacques Tilly with the slogan '11 years of relentless investigation of the abuse cases!' is seen in front of the Cologne Cathedral in Cologne, western Germany, on March 18, 2021, as a long-awaited report was published on sexual violence allegedly committed by clergy and laymen in Germany's top diocese. The independent study on the Cologne diocese commissioned by the Roman Catholic Church found 202 alleged perpetrators of sexual assault and 314 victims between 1975 and 2018. (AFP/Ina Fassbender)

A

n independent study into child sex abuse in Germany's Roman Catholic Church published Thursday revealed hundreds of alleged cases and led to the resignation of the archbishop of Hamburg.

The long-awaited 800-page report on Germany's top diocese Cologne found 202 alleged perpetrators of sexual assault and 314 victims between 1975 and 2018, Bjoern Gercke, a lawyer mandated by the Church, told reporters.

"More than half of the victims were children under the age of 14," Gercke said.

The findings including abuse by both clergy and laymen show "that for decades, apparently no one dared to report such cases".

The Archbishop of Hamburg, Stefan Hesse, offered Pope Francis his immediate resignation after the report pinpointed 11 instances of breach of duty linked to abuse allegations during his time as vicar general in the Cologne diocese.

Hesse said in a statement he had always acted "to the best of my knowledge and conscience" and had "never participated in any cover-up".

"I am nevertheless prepared to bear my share of responsibility for the failure of the system," he said. 

However the investigation cleared Cologne's Archbishop Rainer Maria Woelki -- a conservative who has long resisted reform -- of breach of duty over the abuse.

Most of the allegations cover the tenure of Woelki's predecessor, Cardinal Joachim Meisner, who died in 2017.

Woelki had faced months of protests for refusing to allow the publication of an earlier study on abuse committed by priests in his diocese.

He had justified his decision citing a right to privacy for those accused in the report, carried out by a Munich law firm, and what he called a lack of independence on the part of some researchers.

His approach was branded "a disaster" as recently as late February by Georg Baetzing, president of the German bishops' conference.

In the wake of Thursday's report, Woelki said he was suspending two Cologne Church officials, bishop Dominikus Schwaderlapp and the head of a diocese court, Guenter Assenmacher, with immediate effect, saying they had participated in a "cover-up" of abuse cases.

Woelki pledged to take more concrete measures next week after reading the report in full. 

The government commissioner on child sexual abuse, Johannes-Wilhelm Roerig, said in a statement that "the scale of the abuse and breaches of duty by Church leaders" was "shocking".

"I hope that the independent investigation of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church will now be pursued with full determination and a limitless will to find the truth in all German dioceses" in the interest of the victims, he said.

The abuse scandal returns to the headlines just as the Catholic Church has made small steps toward addressing decades of abuse and a culture of enforced silence.

A study commissioned by the German Bishops' Conference and released in 2018 showed that 1,670 clergymen had committed some type of sexual attack against 3,677 minors, mostly boys, between 1946 and 2014.

However, its authors said the actual number of victims was almost certainly much higher.

The revelations, which mirror paedophile scandals in countries including Australia, Chile, France, Ireland and the United States, prompted Cardinal Reinhard Marx, a prominent reformer, to apologise on behalf of the German Catholic Church.

The Church currently pays victims an average of 5,000 euros (about $5,950) "in recognition of their suffering", as well as covering their therapy fees. Victims have called the sum woefully insufficient.

Meanwhile, each diocese in Germany has ordered a separate local investigation into abuse among its ranks.

The scandal in Cologne has sapped energy from efforts to spearhead broader reforms at a time when the Church is losing members, who in Germany pay a tax that goes toward church activities including charity work.

Germany's Catholic Church counted 22.6 million members in 2019 and it is still the largest religion in the country, but the number is two million fewer than in 2010 when the first major wave of paedophile abuse cases came to light.

{

Your Opinion Counts

Your thoughts matter - share your experiences, suggestions, and any issues you've encountered on The Jakarta Post. We're here to listen.

Enter at least 30 characters
0 / 30

Thank You

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. We appreciate your feedback.