Abuse in the Catholic Church: “Politics have so far been too reserved”

More and more voices are being raised calling on the state to intervene in the investigation of abuse in the Catholic Church. Politicians must do more, says the government’s abuse commissioner.

After the publication of a report on sexual violence against children and young people in the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, calls for more political and judiciary influence on the investigation were made.

For example, the federal government’s anti-abuse commissioner, Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig, calls for greater political involvement in dealing with sexualized violence in the Catholic Church. “It would be important for the review commission I set up at the federal level in 2016 to finally be enshrined in law,” he said rbb. This commission would have to “actually be granted control, advisory and perhaps also investigation rights”.

Federal and state politics would have to get involved much more, said Rörig: “Politics have so far been too reserved when it comes to dealing with and abuse in the church sector. And it would be really important to me that the small things of the Federal policy is stuck in the mothball of the past and the traffic light coalition decides in favor of a consistent reappraisal of sexualised violence in the church sector as well.”

“System of Cover-up and Quick Forgiveness”

Similar demands came from politicians themselves. Lars Castelluci, spokesman on religion and politics for the SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag, told the Augsburger Allgemeine that nobody could “enlighten themselves – that’s what our constitutional state is for.” After the experience with the different reports and their handling in the church, he called for “a binding, common and verifiable framework for processing throughout Germany – transparency and independence must be strengthened”. Castelluci also mentioned upgrading the independent review commission as a possible way.

The President of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), Irme Stetter-Karp, said in rbb, she “no longer believes that the church alone can do the work-up”. The question has to be asked “whether it wouldn’t be a better way if we had more influence on the political side in terms of the independence of the processing – for example via a committee in parliament, via a commission, via a truth commission.” Stetter-Karp was disappointed with the behavior of those responsible in the church. “It’s obvious that in 2022, too, the bitter reality is that the system of cover-up, forgetting and quick forgiveness of the perpetrators hasn’t been broken.”

Demands on the Pope

The Passau legal scholar Holm Putzke also called for more action by politicians and the judiciary. “Since this seems to be a never-ending story, the state should put all day-care centers and schools that are sponsored by the Catholic Church under surveillance, or even consider withdrawing sponsorship,” said the criminal law professor. The judiciary also looked the other way for a long time: “The law enforcement authorities can be accused of treating criminal behavior differently in the Catholic Church than, for example, crime in commercial enterprises or in schools and boarding schools,” he said.

The Münster canon lawyer Thomas Schüller called on Pope Francis to draw conclusions from the report. “I would wish the Pope would be stricter with the German bishops,” Schüller said BR. “The German bishops can afford whatever they want. They stay in office for power-political and fiscal reasons.” Ultimately, it “always depends on a pope who raises and lowers his thumb at the end”.

Pope: Apply laws strictly

Meanwhile, Pope Francis himself commented on the subject of abuse, but without directly referring to the report. Receiving representatives of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Apostolic Palace, he called for strict application of legislation on the issue. “The Church, with the help of God, advances the commitment to serve victims of abuse committed by our members by applying with particular attention and rigor the designated canonical legislation,” he said.

In his speech to the representatives, Francis referred to the recent adjustment of the norms, which makes it easier for church representatives who are convicted of any kind of abuse to be held accountable. “This alone may not be enough to curb the phenomenon, but it is an important step towards restoring justice, resolving the scandal and changing a perpetrator,” said the 85-year-old.

Justice examines 42 cases

After the publication of the report on Thursday, the judiciary will examine whether church leaders may have made themselves punishable. The Munich I public prosecutor’s office is currently investigating 42 cases of misconduct by church leaders, confirmed the authority’s spokeswoman, Anne Leiding, to the dpa news agency. The Westpfahl Spilker Wastl law firm, which wrote the sensational report on behalf of the diocese, made “41 cases available to the public prosecutor’s office in August 2021,” said Leiding – and another case in November 2021. “They only concern ecclesiastical leaders who are still alive and were transmitted in a highly anonymised form.”

If, on this basis, “suspects regarding possibly criminally relevant behavior on the part of church officials arise”, the relevant documents would be requested from the law firm and, if necessary, passed on to the responsible public prosecutor’s office, said Leiding. “Which criminal law norms were violated is still the subject of the examination.”

Serious allegations against Ratzinger

The WSW report, commissioned by the archdiocese of Munich and Freising itself, comes to the conclusion that cases of sexual abuse in the diocese have not been dealt with appropriately for decades and accuses the former archbishops Friedrich Wetter and Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. , concrete and personal misconduct in several cases. The current archbishop, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, has also been accused of formal misconduct in two cases.

The experts speak of at least 497 victims and 235 alleged perpetrators, but assume that there are significantly more unreported cases. Ratzinger’s role is particularly explosive. In his case, the experts consider it proven that he enabled four pedophile clerics – two of whom had previous convictions – to continue working in church communities. A statement in which Benedikt rejected this was called by the experts on the basis of witness interviews and the file situation implausible.