BERLIN (GERMANY)
Catholic News Agency via Catholic World
September 12, 2018
A study commissioned by the German bishops’ conference reports the sexual abuse of thousands of children in that country over a period of 70 years. The report was scheduled to be released later this month, but was leaked Wednesday to German media.
The report was commissioned by the German bishops’ conference and scheduled to be presented on Sept. 25 at the autumn plenary session of the German bishops, as CNA Deutsch reported.
Its methodology is substantially different from that of the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report.
The study documents sexual offenses against “3677 predominantly male minors” between 1946 and 2014, Der Spiegel reported
“1670 clerics are accused of the deeds,” the German magazine reported, saying researchers had “examined and evaluated more than 38,000 personnel and other files from 27 German dioceses.”
Der Spiegel reported that in many cases evidence was found by researchers to have have been “destroyed or manipulated.”
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