By Frances D'Emilio
Northjersey.com
May 9, 2010
http://www.northjersey.com/news/93219219_Pope_acts_to_clean_house.html
A leading German bishop who has acknowledged slapping children and is being investigated for alleged sexual abuse of minors and financial misconduct lost his job Saturday as Pope Benedict XVI continued cleaning house.
The German-born pontiff formally accepted the resignation offer made April 21 by Bishop Walter Mixa, an outspoken conservative voice in the German church and a military chaplain for Germany, as well as head of the Augsburg diocese.
 |
Mixa's posting to Augsburg in summer 2005 was among Benedict's first.
The terse Vatican announcement, without commenting on the abuse allegations, only said the decision was in line with canon law provisions for bishops no longer fit for service.
Mixa had offered to step down amid persistent allegations that he hit children while a priest decades ago and of financial irregularities at a children's home for which he was responsible.
Pressure on the Vatican to get him out of the post increased on Friday, when the Augsburg diocese said, without further details, that it had given prosecutors information in line with German church guidelines for handling sex abuse cases.
Mixa, 69, is the latest in a line of churchmen to be toppled by scandals.
In a reference to the sex abuse revelations staining dioceses in several European countries this year, Benedict said Saturday that the church was being "tried" and "wounded" by sin.
In Germany, We Are the Church, a lobby, voiced "relief" that Benedict accepted Mixa's resignation but pushed for more aggressive action by the Vatican for transparency on the selection on bishops.
"To not increase further the loss of standing and credibility for the Catholic church well beyond the Augsburg diocese, it remains necessary to clear up all accusations comprehensively and as quickly as possible," it said.
In the Mixa case, German daily Augsburger Allgemeine reported that Ingolstadt prosecutors had launched a preliminary investigation of allegations that he sexually abused a boy during his time as bishop of Eichstaett from 1996 to 2005.
Prosecutors confirmed a preliminary investigation against Mixa but gave no details.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.