In January, a study into sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising shook the Catholic Church. The experts assumed 497 victims – and a large number of unreported cases.
Since the presentation of the report on sexual abuse in the Catholic Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, dozens of other victims have come forward.
The archdiocese’s independent contact persons for examining suspected cases counted 42 new reports by the beginning of June, as the diocese announced at the request of the German Press Agency in Munich.
The report commissioned by the diocese from a Munich law firm caused a worldwide sensation when it was presented in January. The study assumes at least 497 victims and 235 alleged perpetrators – and from a much larger number of unreported cases.
The report accused the former archbishops Friedrich Wetter and Joseph Ratzinger, now Benedict XVI, of personal misconduct in several cases – as did the current archbishop, Cardinal Reinhard Marx. A year ago, he offered Pope Francis his resignation, which the pontiff immediately rejected.
“Basically, for me it’s about sharing responsibility for the catastrophe of sexual abuse by church officials in recent decades,” Marx wrote to the Pope in his resignation. For him, the investigations and reports over the past ten years have consistently shown that there have been “many personal failures and administrative errors”, but “also institutional or systemic failures”. The Catholic Church has reached a “dead point”.
From the point of view of the reform movement “We are Church”, not enough has happened in Marx’s own diocese since the resignation request: “Unfortunately, the concrete reform steps in the Archdiocese of Munich are still lagging behind the announcements and expressions of dismay,” said “We are Church” spokesman Christian Weisner the dpa.
