Diocese of Passau: Study on sexual abuse commissioned – Bavaria

Personnel files and other files are to be viewed for three years in order to shed light on the abuse that began in 1945. The Passau Bishop Oster hopes that this will also provide information for the prevention work.

The diocese of Passau will have cases of sexual abuse processed in a study. The Chair for Modern and Contemporary History at the University of Passau was commissioned with this as part of a third-party funded project, as the commission for processing sexual abuse of children and young people in the diocese announced on Friday. The costs are estimated at 610,000 euros. In the course of the three-year study, around 3,500 personnel files and other files of the diocese are to be viewed in order to shed light on the abuse that began in 1945.

The subject of sexual abuse of children and young people has shaken the Catholic Church for years. At the beginning of the year, an abuse report by the Archdiocese of Munich-Freising caused a stir. A law firm had come to the conclusion that cases of sexual abuse in the diocese had not been dealt with appropriately for decades.

The Passau research project first wanted to collect the number of cases of abuse, said study leader Marc von Knörring. “The main focus is then on working out the breeding grounds and enabling factors for the abuse of underage wards by clergy, whereby in addition to the internal church structures, the social environment of those affected and its role in covering up or concealing the crimes should be highlighted.”

Important information “for the orientation of future prevention work can also be expected from the study,” he said. Passau bishop Stefan Oster emphasized that the committees of the diocese and he himself were unanimous behind the project. “The findings will certainly be painful – because we will see what suffering was inflicted on those affected – and who covered the deeds and thus directly or indirectly made them possible. But I hope it will ultimately be cleansing for the entire Church of Passau .”

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