By Allan Hall
March 31, 2010
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1262640/Bishop-Walter-Mixa-accused-hitting-children-carpet-beater-Catholic-orphanage.html
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| Accused: Bishop Walter Mixa oversaw the St Josef children's home in Schrobenhausen, Germany, 30 years ago |
The Catholic Church abuse scandal in Germany moved closer to the Vatican today with claims of violence against both boys and girls committed by a friend and ally of Pope Benedict XVI.
Bishop Walter Mixa of Augsburg - appointed by the pope in 2005 - is accused of the systematic beating of children in his care when he oversaw a Catholic orphanage 30 years ago.
The Bishop, a controversial figure who tried to explain away rampant paedophilia in the Church by claiming the sexual liberation movement must share a 'significant' part of the blame, is accused of using a carpet beater on the bare behinds of victims as he screamed: 'Satan is in you and I must drive him out.'
The alleged victims say he also used a stick, a wooden cookery spoon and, when that broke, his fists.
Nuns of the Mallersdorf order who worked for him at the at the St Josef children’s home in Schrobenhausen also hit the children with 'wooden brooms, wooden shoes, and clothing hangers,' it was alleged.
'I was really upset when the pope appointed him Bishop because he was much lower in rank then and doesn't deserve to be where he is because of what he put us through,' said Hildegard Sedlmair, now 48, who says she was abused by Father Mixa when she was 15.
She said the time spent at the home, for children with family difficulties, 'was the worst of my life'.
She went on: 'He grabbed me by my smock, hauled me out of bed and beat me on the upper arms until they were black and blue.'
A man who refused to be identified because he works as a teacher himself, told Germany's Sueddeutsche newspaper: 'A minimum of 50 times in one year he made me drop my trousers and beat me on my behind with a carpet beater or a stick, really, really hard.' He was at the home between 1972 to 1982.
He and others said that as well as claiming he was striking out the devil from his charges, Father Mixa would also often say: 'Child of God, take this punishment.'
Monika Bernhard, 47, said: 'I lived in a perpetual climate of fear when there. I have nightmares to this day. I am running away from him in them. He would beat me, I would fall on the bed, and he would drag me upright to do it again.'
Father Mixa, 68, who is a member of the archly-conservative St Pius X organisation, which Holocaust-denying British Bishop Richard Williamson belongs to, was the Schrobenhausen parish leader between 1975 and 1996.
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| Pope Benedict XVI acknowledges the crowd during his weekly general audience at the Vatican this week. Father Mixa is said to be a close friend and ally of the pope |
He frequently visited the St Josef’s children’s home to discipline the children for their bad behaviour claimed the victims.
As a younger cleric he was friendly with the then Cardinal Ratzinger in Germany and his arch-conservative views made him a favourite when he became pontiff.
The order said it would undertake an open investigation into the accusations while also denying the veractiy of the claims.
Germany’s Catholic Church has been embroiled in a crisis over recent weeks as victims of widespread sexual and physical abuse continue to come forward.
Most cases date back by several years, a fact that has politicians debating a possible extension to the statute of limitations on such crimes.
Similar accusations have also surfaced in the Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland, while Ireland has been rocked by revelations about cover-up efforts by the head of the Church there in the 1970s.
The Vatican has said it received 3,000 reports between 2001 and 2010 of sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy committed over the past 50 years.
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