Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Archbishop Reinhard Marx or Archbishop Julius Döpfner: How did those responsible behave in the abuse scandal in the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising? The appraiser’s assessment.
By Bernd Kastner
Nicolas Richter and Annette Zoch
Julius Döpfner, Archbishop (1961-1976): The experts accuse Döpfner, who died in 1976, of having acted incorrectly in 14 cases of abuse. Even with Döpfner’s predecessors, canonical procedures and enlightenment were omitted. Under Döpfner, clerics suspected of abuse or even sentenced by the state were again employed in pastoral care without any significant restrictions on their activities or supervision. The transfer of such clergymen to clinics or old people’s homes, which was common at the time, did not represent a suitable restriction and was not an insurmountable obstacle to contacting minors, since these positions were often associated with temporary work in parishes. The lack of care for those affected in his time weighed all the more heavily because the topic not only played a major role in the Second Vatican Council, but also because awareness of the consequences of abuse among victims had already increased.