(Berlin) The Munich public prosecutor’s office announced on Friday that it was examining the possible responsibilities of 42 clergymen in cases of child sex abuse in Germany the day after the publication of a report accusing of inaction of senior Church dignitaries, including the former Pope Benedict XVI.
Posted at 9:00 a.m.
The law firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl (WSW), author of this damning report commissioned by the Catholic Church, “made available” to the prosecution in August 2021 file elements supporting the alleged misconduct of 41 ecclesiastical officials, indicated to AFP a spokeswoman for the prosecution Anne Leiding. Another case was submitted to him in November.
“These cases are part of the report, relate exclusively to living Church officials and have been transferred [au parquet] under cover of strict anonymity “of the people in question, she said.
If, after study, the prosecution considers that these cases fall under criminal law, then it will ask the law firm for additional information, she said, adding that the analysis was still in progress.
The authors of the report denounced on Thursday a systematic and “frightening” concealment of cases of sexual assault on minors in the archdiocese of Munich and Freising, and reproached its leaders, including the pontiff emeritus, for having done nothing in several cases to prevent child abuse.
PHOTO SVEN HOPPE, REUTERS
The report was presented Thursday in Munich.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, before he became pope, is thus accused of having taken no measures to remove four clergymen suspected of sexual violence against minors in this archbishopric which he directed from 1977 to 1982, which he defends.
Based on the available archives and testimonies, the lawyers have identified a total of 497 victims between 1945 and 2019, mostly young boys and adolescents and 235 alleged culprits, mainly priests.
The expertise of the Munich lawyers “shows again clearly, and in a shocking way, the dimension of the abuses and the breaches of their duty as dignitaries of the Church”, reacted Friday Christiane Hoffmann, spokesperson for Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
“The government demands a full and transparent elucidation from the Church,” she added during a regular press conference.
For many associations, complaining is no longer enough and they want the involvement of the federal state.
Politicians have so far been “hesitant” to intervene in the handling of cases of pedophilia in the Church, judged the commissioner to the government responsible for questions of sexual assault, Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig.
“I do not believe that the Church will succeed in [les] clarify alone,” said the president of the ZdK Catholic lay committee, Irme Stetter-Karp, on RBB radio.
“We are entitled to ask ourselves” if it would not be more appropriate to entrust this task to the political powers “for example by means of a commission [d’enquête] in parliament,” she added.