GERMANY
The Tablet
December 20, 2019
By Christa Pongratz-Lippitt
A sex abuse case in the German Catholic Church will also no longer be called a ‘despicable act’ but a ‘crime’.
The German bishops have tightened up their sexual abuse guidelines, making them binding on all dioceses for the first time.
The German bishops’ conference has announced the new guidelines will become law from 1 January next year and apply to the sexual abuse of minors and adults with special needs, such as people with disabilities, in the Church.
They will be published in each diocese’s official gazette. This is the first revision since 2013 and they will be reassessed again in five years’ time.
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