LIMBURG (GERMANY)
Catholic Herald [London, England]
November 3, 2026
By Michael Haynes
The prominent bishop of Limburg robustly criticized Leo XIV for remarks he made in September regarding the Church’s response to sexual abuse
The former head of the German bishops has publicly rebuked Pope Leo, after the Pope shied away from saying that the Catholic Church had a systemic problem with sexual abuse.
Bishop Georg Bätzing of the German Diocese of Limburg has declared he found recent comments by the Pontiff to be “troubling” and “highly problematic”.
“Does he [Leo] acknowledge that not only individual persons and organisations, but also specific structures within the Catholic Church have facilitated abuse and its cover-up?,” the bishop asked.
Bätzing was referring to Leo’s in-flight press conference during his return from France to Rome at the end of September. A French journalist asked Leo about his meeting in Lourdes with clerical abuse survivors, questioning if it was true that he had “acknowledged” to the group there was a “systemic” problem of abuse in the Church. “Is that indeed the case? Could you explain your position on this? Do you consider sexual abuse in the Church to be systemic?,” the journalist probed.
Leo sought to distance himself from the claim of systemic abuse, framing the answer in an attempt to avoid “wanting to contradict anyone”. He acknowledged that many of the abuse victims he spoke to referred to “systemic abuse”, but added that “I prefer to express it in a different way, although I did speak about some organisations within the Church who have, at times, if you will, as a system, been abusive.”
He attempted to distinguish between the Church and her members, saying that “sexual abuse is first and foremost a human problem.” Leo outlined how, when individual members of the Church commit abuse, then “the Church, in certain ways, has been seen as being responsible.” But he added that “in the same way that the Church, I think, is an important part of helping them to find healing.”
For Bätzing, however, such remarks fell short of what he deemed was required. Abuse is a widespread issue and he demanded that society “look closely at the specific conditions that enable or facilitate it in each context.”
“I hope,” said Bätzing, that Leo “will offer an equally unequivocal acknowledgment of the systemic causes of sexualised violence.”
The former chairman of the German bishops’ conference (DBK) cited the 2018 MHG Study into sexual abuse. Commissioned by the DBK, the survey found over 1,600 clergy who were accused of abuse between 1946 and 2014. Just under 63 percent of the 3,600 victims were male, with some 66 percent being younger than 14 at that time of the abuse.
Bätzing downplayed the link to homosexuality in his commentary. “It is not the homosexual orientation of priests that constitutes a risk factor, but rather the taboo surrounding it, which can foster dependencies and a culture of silence,” he said. Rather, he blamed the “taboo-ridden approach to sexuality and sexual orientation” as partly responsible for the levels of abuse.
The MHG Study was viewed as damning for the Church in Germany and the Synodal Way was in large part – at least officially – launched to respond to the issue of abuse. Responding to abuse remains a key topic at the DBK meetings, although many of the more high-profile topics from the Synodal Way pertain to desired changes to doctrine and Catholic morality.
Referencing this, Batzing said the MHG Study revealed that the very structures of the Church must change, along with the existing norms for decision making and the exercise of authority. “Against this backdrop, I consider the statement that sexual abuse is primarily a human problem to be inadequate and, given its potential consequences, highly problematic,” argued Bätzing.
The 65-year-old bishop continued:
“I do not wish to imply that the Pope fundamentally rejects scientific findings. But his statements leave a crucial question unanswered: Does he acknowledge that not only individual persons and organisations, but also specific structures within the Catholic Church have facilitated abuse and its cover-up?”
Among the organisational change Bätzing demanded was a reform of the Roman Curia – which he said was not yet taking place – and of the very “leadership structures of the universal Church”. All “must also be held accountable” with regard the exercise of power and the implantation of checks and balances.
Should the Church downplay or not admit to “the systemic causes of sexual violence, it would be a serious setback”, opined Bätzing. He attested that failure to acknowledge such would weaken the Church’s credibility even further and undermine its spiritual authority.
“A Church that wishes to proclaim the Gospel credibly must be prepared to critically examine its own structures as well,” he wrote.
Bätzing’s commentary is remarkable on a number of counts, but by no means least of those is the tone he takes towards the Pope. For a bishop to address the Pope in such forthright comments, accusing him of lacking comprehension of the issue at hand, is rare. It also points to the frustration felt by many in Germany, as the Pope and the Vatican refuse to rubber stamp the statutes for their desired Synodal Conference.
While the Limburg bishop calls on the Pope to imitate Germany in undertaking a sweeping overhaul of the Church’s structure in order to safeguard the Church’s reputation, the statistics do not favourably support such an argument. Over 1.5 million Germans have formally left the Church since 2022, meaning that they did not simply vanish, but they had to proactively remove their legal faith registration status as Catholic. Of those that remain, less than 7 percent attend weekly Mass, suggesting that the tactics currently employed by the German episcopate are not producing any fruit.
The Vatican has yet to make any public remark on Bätzing’s letter, with Leo due to depart for his South American voyage on Friday morning.
Michael Haynes is an English journalist in the Holy See Press Corps. He serves as Vatican Correspondent for the Catholic Herald, while readers can follow him at Per Mariam and on X @MLJHaynes.