The law firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl (WSW) charged around 1.45 million euros for its abuse report on behalf of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising. This was announced by a diocese spokesman on Thursday at the request of the Catholic News Agency. The sum includes the preparation of the report over a period of two years. “In addition, there are expenses for the publication, in particular the preparation and implementation of the press conference and the involvement of other experts by the law firm,” said the spokesman.
The spokesman could not provide any information on the costs of the first WSW report for the archdiocese from 2010. These are “not known to us and, after more than ten years, hardly understandable anymore”. The spokesman referred to the ten-year retention period for such invoices.
The second report was published on January 20 of this year. On a total of around 1,900 pages, it lists the failures of leading church leaders in combating the abuse of minors by clergy since 1945.
Personalities who are still alive, such as the former Archbishop of Munich and Pope Benedict XVI. rejected the allegations, but also admitted their own failures to varying degrees.
The Munich cathedral dean Lorenz Wolf (66) was the only one who drew personal consequences and gave up his two most important offices, the head of the Catholic office and the post of the highest ecclesiastical judge of the archdiocese.