crime
Abuse in Church: 1,500 requests for compensation
The resolution of the German bishops of September 2020 provides for financial benefits of up to 50,000 euros for the victims. Photo: Sebastian Gollnow / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Since January, compensation payments for victims of sexual abuse have been reorganized in the Catholic Church. The responsible commission has received so many applications that it has to upgrade.
Since the beginning of the year, the Catholic Church has received 1,509 applications for payments for victims of sexual abuse.
The Independent Commission for Recognition Services (UKA) in Bonn announced that over 519 of these have already been decided.
Victims of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church have been able to apply for higher sums since the beginning of the year following a new regulation of recognition payments. The resolution of the German bishops of September 2020 provides for financial contributions of up to 50,000 euros. The Commission did not initially provide information about the amount of the payments resulting from the 519 approved applications.
“We have reached an important milestone,” said the Commission communication. The numbers had “increased considerably in the course of the year”. And in future applications should be processed more quickly, because the commission is to be increased in staff.
“For the first time, we were able to decide more than 100 applications in one month. We have now managed a third of all applications received, »said the UKA chairwoman, Margarete Reske. «At 990, the number of applications still to be processed is now below the one-thousand mark. We absolutely wanted to achieve this important milestone. “
The abuse scandal has been preoccupying the Catholic Church in Germany for more than a decade. It was only at the end of November that the Advisory Board of the German Bishops’ Conference sharply criticized the pastors. He took “the current decisions of the Permanent Council to recognize the suffering with great incomprehension, annoyance and indignation,” said the advisory board a week ago.
The recognition process is not transparent, is the allegation. The fact that the Permanent Council of the Bishops’ Conference did not want to increase the services was also acknowledged with incomprehension. “Instead of a noticeable improvement on the way, it remains with a problematic and non-transparent system,” it said in the message after a meeting of the DBK’s permanent council. “In view of low achievements, numerous retraumatisations, among other things triggered by applications and notices, such a justification for the renewed adherence to the existing recognition system sounds like sheer mockery and cynicism.”