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Thursday, September 13th, 2018

A new report details the grim, familiar pattern of sexual abuse at the Catholic Church—this time, in Germany

Author:     Jill Petzinger
Source:     Quartz
Publication Date:     12 September 2018
 Link: A new report details the grim, familiar pattern of sexual abuse at the Catholic Church—this time, in Germany
Stephan:   There doesn't ever seem to be an end to the Roman church's sexual abuse of children; it just rolls on year after year, country after country. I hate these stories because in every case my mind fills with the images of those molestations and the lifelong effects such experiences have on those boys and girls. The very sad truth is if Ronlyn and I had a young child we would not let him or her be alone with a priest, or monk, or nun, come to that. If I were a Catholic I'm not sure how I could continue to be a faithful communicant.

Roman Catholic cardinals

From Australia to Chile to the US, the Catholic Church’s child sex abuse scandals keep piling up, stoking outrage not just about the crimes, but also about the extent of the coverups by church officials.

Today, the same grim patterns and depressing details uncovered elsewhere emerged in Germany. According to a confidential study commissioned by the German Bishops conference, seen by Der Spiegel news magazine, German priests sexually abused 3,677 minors between 1946 and 2014. The study, carried out by three German universities, is due to be presented by Cardinal Reinhard Marx, chairman of German Bishops’ Conference, later this month.

It found that 1,670 clerics and priests from 27 German dioceses were involved in the abuse, that the victims were mostly young males, and that the majority were under the age of 13 when they were abused.

According to the report, half of the cases in the German study would not have come to light had the victim not made a claim for compensation, as […]

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