BishopAccountability.org
	German Abuse Victims Asked for Forgiveness news.com.au December 3, 2010 http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/world/german-abuse-victims-asked-for-forgiveness/story-e6frfkui-1225965509217 THE archbishop of Munich and Freising has begged forgiveness for "everything those working for the church have done'' as he presented a report that showed more 250 priests and religion teachers abused children in a diocese that was once presided over by Pope Benedict XVI. Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who commissioned the report, said the Catholic church in Germany would have to work to regain the trust that has been lost since reports of abuse at the hands of German priests broke earlier this year. "We want to learn from our bad mistakes and misconduct of the past,'' Marx said. "And as archbishop, I also ask for forgiveness in the name of the church for everything that those working for the church have done.'' Attorney Marion Westphal has been tasked with examining about 13,200 documents from the diocese, spanning from 1945 to 2009, for the report. She said she had found instances of abuse among 159 priests, but underlined that "we must assume the real number is much higher'' given that countless documents that are believed to have served as evidence of wrongdoing were missing or appeared to have been purposely destroyed. "We were faced, in researching the documents, with a far-reaching case of destruction and found that many documents were not stored in the bishop's office and displayed clear indications of manipulation,'' Westphal said. Of those priests determined to have been abusive, about 26 were cases of a sexual nature, all of which were prosecuted according to church regulations at the time, she said. None of the priests were still alive. The remainder of the abuse cases were physical. In addition, the report found 96 religion teachers commissioned by the diocese to hold classes on Catholicism in regional schools were abusive, only one of them sexually. Westphal said the report revealed no further information regarding the case of the Reverend Peter Hullermann, who was transferred to the diocese following sexual abuse of minors elsewhere. Benedict, then Joseph Ratzinger, was archbishop at the time. She further underlined that it was largely the responsibility of the general vicar, and not the archbishop, to make decisions regarding the movement of priests. The future Pope served as archbishop of the diocese from 1977-1981. The report also focused on how the church could proceed in dealing with reported cases of abuse, by following new guidelines and making sure that all documents are digitised and held in a central archive.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.