German study finds systematic cover-ups in Catholic priest abuse cases | Germany| News and in-depth reporting from Berlin and beyond | DW | 03.12.2010
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German study finds systematic cover-ups in Catholic priest abuse cases

An investigation into cases of sexual abuse in the German Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, where Pope Benedikt XVI was once archbishop, has revealed a "systematic system of cover-up" and a lot of missing paperwork.

A woman's hand holds a statue of Frei Galvao, a Franciscan monk born in 1739, and a cross

The study was commissioned to try to air some dirty laundry


The lawyer heading up the investigation, Marion Westpfahl, said at a press conference on Friday that the available records pointed to huge gaps in the documentation between 1945 and 2009. She added this hinted strongly at a "systematic system of cover-up," in which few abuse cases were criminally prosecuted.

"Only 26 priests were convicted for sexual offences," Westpfahl explained to reporters, saying she found 365 files containing evidence that "acts of abuse had taken place in an almost commonplace manner."

"We have to assume that there is a large unknown number [of abuse cases]," she said. "We are dealing with the extensive destruction of files."

Pope Benedikt XVI (then Archbishop Josef Ratzinger) is greeted by a jubilant crowd in Munich

The Munich and Freising Archdiocese was run by the current pope in his younger days


The victims' suffering often remained a mystery, she said, as the reports usually discussed abuse in coy euphemisms.

Details sketchy on papal era

Westpfahl also said that the period of 1977 to 1982, when Pope Benedikt XVI - then Archbishop Josef Ratzinger - headed up the archdiocese, was particularly poorly documented.


Westpfahl praised the church for giving her free reign in her research, a task to which she was assigned by current Archbishop Reinhard Marx.

"For me, these were surely the worst months of my life," Marx told reporters on Friday. "I felt shame, grief and dismay. As a church, we ask forgiveness for those things done by our church employees."

The Archdiocese of Munich and Freising was one of the worst hit in Germany during the wave of abuse accusations that swept across much of Europe in 2009, and Westpfahl's report was commissioned in response to the allegations.

Author: Mark Hallam (dpa, AFP, KNA)
Editor: Nancy Isenson

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