GERMANY
Expatica
Two Roman Catholic seminary students have been expelled for making anti-Semitic and racist jokes and attending a concert by a band accused of far-right ties, German bishops said Wednesday.
The decision came after an independent probe ordered by the German Church, which found wrongdoing by the students, who were not identified, but no evidence of a “right-wing extremist network” at the priest training college.
The bishops of the southern cities of Bamberg and Wuerzburg, Ludwig Schick and Friedhelm Hofmann, made the announcement in the wake of a scandal dating from May that was deeply embarrassing to the Church.
The report lists in detail incidents directly involving three students in a class at the Wuerzburg seminary, whose graduates go on to serve as priests in Wuerzburg and Bamberg.
“One student told at least three concentration camp jokes for fun,” they said in a statement, based on the findings of a three-member external commission.
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