Press TV
March 18, 2010
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=121153§ionid=351020605
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| Bishop Czeslaw Kozon (seen in this undated picture) has been criticized for saying that the Church did not have a responsibility to investigate abuse cases. |
In Denmark, the latest country mired in the sex abuse scandal involving Catholic priests, a children's rights group has called for a review of the controversial church secrecy rules.
The government-funded National Council for Children has reportedly urged the reappraisal of secrecy clauses to ensure that alleged cases of child abuse are investigated.
The move comes after revelations that the laws had paved the way for crimes committed in the 1980s or earlier to remain unprosecuted.
Head of the National Council for Children, Lisbeth Zornig Andersen, emphasized on Thursday that even the medical profession allowed room for exceptions in the secrecy laws over suspicious cases of child abuse.
The country's bishop, Czeslaw Kozon, is facing sharp criticism for remarks he made on the sensitive issue, which some analysts say undermines the credibility of the Catholic Church in Lutheran Denmark.
The Kristeligt Dagblad newspaper quoted bishop Kozon as saying that he knew “...of 4-5 cases of child abuse in the Danish catholic church, but it was not his responsibility to investigate the cases, nor was it his responsibility to report them to the Danish police.”
Catholic institutions across Europe have been embroiled in a growing scandal over sexual abuse of pupils by pedophile priests.
However, the most embarrassing cases have emerged in Pope Benedict XVI's German home state of Bavaria, where both he and his brother have been criticized for "silence" in abuse cases.
Claims of sexual abuse have continuously plagued the Church since 2006, when Dioceses settled cases in the US with a $1.5 billion payment.
The controversy has even reignited calls by followers of the faith, including such senior figures as Pope Benedict XVI's protege, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, to end priestly celibacy — a mandatory practice believed to have been established in the Middle Ages.
Meanwhile, the bishop of the northern Italian city of Bolzano, Karl Golser, asked for forgiveness on Thursday, days after victims of past child abuse in his diocese came forward.
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