GERMANY
The Tablet
26 July 2017 | by Christa Pongratz-Lippitt
‘This is not a matter of individual cases of abuse as Cardinal Müller always insisted when he was Bishop of Regensburg’
The Bishop of Regensburg, Rudolf Voderholzer, has asked the hundreds of victims in the Domspatzen choir scandal for forgiveness saying that he is “absolutely shattered” by the findings of the report released last week.
Published on 17 July, the report, commissioned by the diocese of Regensburg and compiled by the lawyer Ulrich Weber, stated that 547 boys were abused at the prestigious choir school in Regensburg, Bavaria, between the years 1945 and 1992.
Bishop Voderholzer’s response contrasted with that of former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Gerhard Muller, who was bishop of Regensburg form 2002 to 2012, who admitted that he “experienced shame for what has happened in the Church” but emphasised “everything that was possible and necessary was done” and refused to apologise.
“All this makes me feel deeply guilt-ridden and fills me with shame”, Bishop Voderholzer wrote in a pastoral letter that was read out in all the parishes in the Regensburg diocese on 23 July. “It weighs all the heavier as all these children were, in good faith, put in the trust of priests and church employees who were under obligation to act on behalf of Christ the Good Shepherd.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.