As of: 09/28/2022 4:21 p.m
The Bishop of Aachen This replaces the previous abuse commissioner of the Catholic Church, Ackermann, after twelve years. There are still orders that refuse to be processed, he said – they should participate.
The Bishop of Aachen, Helmut Diese, will in future push ahead with the investigation of the abuse scandal in the Catholic Church for the German Bishops’ Conference. With the Archbishop of Freiburg, Stephan Burger, a deputy was appointed for the first time.
The two succeed Bishop Stephan Ackermann of Trier, who has resigned from the office of abuse commissioner for the bishops after twelve years. In order to place the work on a broader foundation, an independent expert council and an episcopal specialist group will be set up, which he will chair.
“Unfinished Task”
He sees himself facing great challenges, as he made clear at the autumn plenary assembly of the German Bishops’ Conference in Fulda. The scandal surrounding multiple sexual abuse of children, young people and adults in the Catholic Church is “highly toxic”, it has a lasting effect and is destroying social relationships. “The church can break down,” said This.
The processing is a big task that is “unfinished” – but it also offers the chance for a renewal of the church. There are still orders that refuse to be processed, he admitted. He appealed to them to participate. The need for action in the whole Church is still very great. It’s about the “concerns of deeply injured people”.
Church reformers call replacement “overdue”
The reform movement Wir sind Kirche rated Ackermann’s replacement as “long overdue”. In view of the dimension of the task, which only became apparent over the course of the twelve years, the Bishop of Trier “understandably often seemed overwhelmed and helpless”. “For far too long, the German bishops have shifted a large part of their responsibility onto the abuse commissioner,” says Wir sind Kirche.
But Ackermann’s hands were tied by canon law, since there was no authority to issue instructions to his fellow bishops. This basic problem remains as a stumbling block even with the new specialist group headed by Diese and Burger.