VATICAN CITY
Natonal Catholic Reporter
Christa Pongratz-Lippitt | Mar. 2, 2016
Questioned on his reaction to the unveiling of systematic cover-up of priestly sexual abuse in the Oscar-winning film “Spotlight,” the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, said that only a number of individuals not motivated by their priestly office but instead “disturbed or immature,” have been proven guilty of sexually abusing minors.
“The vast majority of priests have been bitterly wronged by the generalizations regarding abuse,” he said, recalling that criminal statistics showed that most sexual abusers were found within the family circle. “They are fathers and other relatives of the victims. One cannot, however, draw the inverse conclusion that most fathers are therefore possible or actual perpetrators.”
In the interview with German daily Kölner Stadt Anzeiger on a visit to Germany, he said he had a problem with the word “hush up” being used “far too lightly” with reference to bishops and sexual abuse cases.
“For me hushing something up means deliberately preventing a recognized criminal offense from being punished or not preventing a further offense from occurring,” Müller said. “Now, as we all know, in past decades the state of knowledge regarding sexual abuse was very different from that of today. Unfortunately, no one had their eye on the long-term consequences of sexual abuse in those days, as, thank God, we have today. Seriously admonishing the perpetrator was often thought — somewhat naively perhaps — to be enough.”
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