Das Schweigen der Hirten ........loose translation "Silence of the Bishops"
GERMANY
Frankfurter RundschauVon Jörg Schindler
The Catholic bishops in the autumn of 2002 could no longer look away from incidents of sexual abuse and were forced to take action by issuing self-regulating guidelines. This happened seven years after their counterparts in the Netherlands, six years after Austria's bishops and even after their South African co-religionists did so.
At first glance, the rules appear to be impressive. They state that victims must be cared for. The dioceses were to form one-stop shops for abuse victims to report abuse and to be supported. The support was to included financial help as well. The perpetrators, however, would be disciplined in the church and state law enforcement officials would be notified only when deemed appropriate. The rules also state that a priest would not be used in areas where there were children and adolescents. That was the theory.
Five years later, the Regensburg bishop, Gerhard Ludwig Mueller, was faced with allegations of sexual abuse by Rev. Peter K. at the town of Riekofen, located near Regensburg, The bishop transferred the priest to the town without telling anyone the priest had been convicted of child sexual abuse. The affair blew up in 2007 as K. had once again abused minors. Bishop Mueller received a report claiming the priest had been cured of pedophile tendencies although experts in the field believe that pedophilia is not curable.
Was this an isolated case? Probably not. A new cover-up of abuse has emerged at St. Canisius in Berlin and another case has been revealed at Holy Cross parish in Hohenschonhausen. The parish council only learned from the bishop that the accused priest was suspended for health reasons.
Bernd Hans Gohrig, director of an ecumenial group called Church from Below, is skeptical whether Germany's Catholic bishops are interested in doing anything about this issue. Serious doubts were raised about the bishop's new guidelines in 2002, he said. He said the guidelines still allowed the churches to obstruct justice.
Gohrig said celibacy is not the cause of sexual abuse but he believes the entrenched power structures within the Catholic Church are contributing to the problem.
Sigrid Meir of We Are Church doubts the church can on its own deal with the problems of child sexual abuse. The guidelines call for self-managing, she said.
To force Catholic bishops to change practices, Norbert Denef, a former altar boy, is collecting internet signatures to get the European Human Rights Court to lift the German statute of limitations law for sexual abuse. Denef was abused by priests within the Magdeburg diocese and fought for years to receive damages. The church offered to pay him but insisted that he remain silent on the abuse. This occured in 2003, after the bishops instituted their guidelines.
FireThePope.com
P.O. Box 638 Geneva Illinois 60134 USA