The Archdiocese of Cologne is facing another lawsuit for pain and suffering from a victim of abuse. How Cologne City Gazette and WDR reports, the foster daughter of the former priest U. is suing the archdiocese for payment of damages of 830,000 euros. The district court of Cologne confirmed receipt of the lawsuit on Wednesday at the request of the SZ.
The now 56-year-old woman lived as a foster daughter in Pastor U.’s household, together with a foster brother. Both children initially grew up in the home and later moved to U. They lived with U. in the vicarage with the express consent of the then Archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal Joseph Höffner. The local press published articles praising the caring foster father with a priest’s collar.
For the third time, those affected are demanding a large sum in court
U. stood before the Cologne district court last year because of the abuse of his three underage nieces. The former foster daughter, who is now suing him for damages, was invited as a witness – and told for the first time what had happened to her: how U. had repeatedly sexually abused her, how she had gotten pregnant twice, how her U after the first abortion that it was a normal gynecological examination. She made a conscious decision to have the second abortion.
U. was sentenced to twelve years in prison by the Cologne Regional Court last year for multiple sexual abuse. Pope Francis dismissed him from the clerical state. This is the third case in which a victim of abuse demands large payments from the church. In mid-June, the Cologne Regional Court had already made a groundbreaking judgment: It had decided that the Archdiocese of Cologne should pay the abused former altar boy Georg Menne a sum of 300,000 euros – the highest sum to date. Menne had demanded 725,000 euros in damages and 80,000 euros for possible future damage.
Mennes’ lawyer, Eberhard Luetjohann, is now also representing U. Luetjohann’s foster daughter in the civil action City Gazette, he hopes that the Archdiocese, as with Menne, will waive the defense of the statute of limitations. Otherwise “the Mariana Trench of immorality would have been reached”. The Archdiocese of Cologne did not want to comment on the SZ request.
A person affected is currently suing the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising in the district court of Traunstein. The 39-year-old demands 350,000 euros in damages. The process is still ongoing, a first quality appointment failed at the end of June.
The German dioceses have so far paid so-called “benefits in recognition of suffering” in a voluntary process. An Independent Commission for Recognition Services (UKA) decides on the amount of the sums. Those affected criticize, however, that the sums are clearly too low. According to UKA chairwoman Margarete Reske, this could now change: the ongoing processes are being observed very closely, she said.