Catholic former Archbishop Robert Zollitsch is accused of covering up sexual abuse cases in an independent report commissioned by the Freiburg archdiocese. The 84-year-old also once led the German Bishops’ Conference.

A report on the past handling of sexual abuse cases in one of Germany’s larger Catholic archdioceses, Freiburg, found that the city’s former archbishop did almost everything in his power to conceal perpetrators over a period of roughly 30 years in total. 

The independent report, one of several comparable outside investigations commissioned by Catholic Churches in Germany of late, was critical of Robert Zollitsch’s handling of abuse in the church both as archbishop and during his 20 preceding years as a close associate of his predecessor, Alexander Saier. 

Eugen Endress, a judge and one of the authors of the report, told a press conference on Tuesday that Zollitsch would often completely ignore church law when confronted with cases. He described the…