Pope Ally Offers Resignation in Germany over Abuse Claims, Telegraph, April 22, 2010

Pope Ally Offers Resignation in Germany over Abuse Claims

Telegraph
April 22, 2010

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/vaticancityandholysee/7619137/Pope-ally-offers-resignation-in-Germany-over-abuse-claims.html

Bishop Walter Mixa of Augsburg, in southern Germany, denied for weeks that he had used violence against youngsters. But the bishop from the Pope's native Bavaria later admitted that he "may have" slapped the children while a priest decades ago.

Some of the victims, who are now adults, allege that he hit them in the face with full force and beat their bare skin, shouting: "Satan is in you and I must drive him out."

In his letter of resignation to Benedict XVI, the bishop wrote: "I ask the forgiveness of all those to whom I may have been unfair and to those who I may have caused heartache."

Bishop Walter Mixa

The 68-year-old bishop said he was "fully aware of my own weaknesses" and would co-operate with investigators.

A statement released by the diocese said: "With his resignation, he wants to avert further damage to the Church and to allow a new start."

Adding to Bishop Mixa's troubles, a special investigator has found financial irregularities at the children's home he was in charge of at around the same time as the allegations of beatings.

The case does not involve allegations of sexual abuse. However, the bishop, who was appointed by the Pope in 2005, is a controversial figure who has tried to explain paedophilia in the Church by claiming the sexual liberation movement must share a "significant" part of the blame.

As a young cleric, Bishop Mixa was friendly with the then Cardinal Ratzinger, and his resignation would be a further blow to the Pope, who on Wednesday apologised to victims of sexual abuse by clergymen.

The offer of resignation from Bishop Mixa on Wednesday was swiftly followed by a Vatican announcement that the Pope had accepted the resignation of an Irish bishop accused of protecting paedophile priests in the Dublin diocese. He was the third Irish bishop to have stepped down because of the sexual abuse crisis.

James Moriarty, the 73-year-old Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, who was auxiliary bishop of Dublin from 1991 to 2002, tendered his resignation in December, when he also apologised to the victims and their families.

He was among six bishops who have so far offered to resign following an explosive Irish government investigation which found hundreds of children were abused by priests in the Dublin archdiocese over several decades.

The Pope promised on Wednesday to confront the clerical sex abuse scandal that has engulfed the Catholic Church, with hundreds of allegations of abuse emerging across Europe and around the world.

Neither the pontiff nor the Vatican have elaborated on what action or measures are being considered.