GERMANY
Irish Times
Derek Scally
German bishops have launched a second attempt to investigate clerical sex abuse allegations after the original effort collapsed last year.
Researchers walked away from the project in January 2013, alleging the Catholic Church was trying to influence their research and censor their findings – claims the church denied.
Four new research institutes have come on board the project to investigate what Bishop Stephan Ackermann of Trier, appointed by his peers as official abuse commissioner, called “this dark side of our church”.
Bishop Ackermann said the research effort, set to take more than three years with a budget of €1 million, would explore the prevalence of sexual and physical abuse committed by clergy towards young people.
“This is for the sake of the victims but also in order to see the mistakes for ourselves,” said Bishop Ackermann. “We must do everything we can to ensure this is not repeated.”
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