Response to abuse report: Cardinal Marx wants to remain in office for the time being

Munich Cardinal Marx has admitted failure in dealing with victims of abuse. The biggest guilt is to have overlooked those affected. He wants to remain in office for the time being, “if that helps,” said Marx.

The Archbishop of Munich and Freising, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, will not offer his resignation to Pope Francis again after the report on sexual abuse in his diocese. “I am willing to continue doing my job if that helps with the further steps that need to be taken for a more reliable work-up, an even greater focus on those affected and for a reform of the church,” Marx told journalists in Munich.

As archbishop, he bears responsibility for the actions of the archdiocese, including for failure to deal with abuse, the cardinal added. Pope Francis had rejected Marx’s offer of resignation last year and entrusted him with further processing of the sexual abuse.

For the future, however, Marx did not rule out a new offer of resignation to the pope. “I’m not attached to my office.” If he or others should get the impression that he would be more of an obstacle than a help for the further processing, he would question himself critically. However, he then wanted to discuss it with others – “in a synodal church I no longer want to deal with it on my own”.

Made a lot of mistakes

Marx repeatedly emphasized that he himself had made mistakes. The biggest guilt was to have overlooked those affected. “That is unforgivable. We had no real interest in your suffering. In my opinion, this also has systemic reasons, and at the same time I bear moral responsibility for it as the acting archbishop.”

At the same time, he rejected accusations that he had delegated the topic too much: “For me, dealing with abuse in the church was and is a top priority and does not conflict with the mission to preach. I was and am not indifferent. If I had acted more and more committed can? Certainly yes!”

Apologies again

Marx once again apologized “personally and on behalf of the Archdiocese” to those affected. He addressed another request of this kind to the faithful, “who have doubts about the church, who can no longer trust those responsible and who have suffered damage to their faith. For too long we have also not sufficiently kept an eye on the parishes in which perpetrators were used had and included them”.

If it is desired by those affected, he wants to seek dialogue with them more regularly than before: “I want to be more present here, because I blame myself for still not sufficiently taking on the perspective of those affected. ”

Supreme Church Judge Wolf lets offices rest

Meanwhile, Munich’s top church judge, Lorenz Wolf, announced that he was giving up all of his offices and duties. Marx said: “I agree with that. He intends to comment in due course.”

Wolf is one of the most influential churchmen in Bavaria. In addition to his functions in the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising as head of the Catholic Office, he is the interface between the church and politics in Bavaria. He has also chaired the Broadcasting Council of Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR) since 2014. In the past few days, calls for his resignation had been made by this body.

As an official, the canon lawyer has been responsible for ecclesiastical jurisdiction in the archdiocese since 1997. He was often involved in cases of abuse as second instance on behalf of the Roman Curia. In the report of the Westpfahl Spilker Wastl (WSW) law firm, it is said about Wolf that his actions in twelve of 104 cases give “cause for criticism”. The official declined to comment on the individual cases, but hired legal counsel who questioned the legitimacy of the investigation. The main criticism of the experts is that when dealing with cases of abuse, Wolf put the interests of the accused ahead of those of the alleged victims.