Berlin archdiocese to set up inquiry into clerical abuse

DEREK SCALLY in Berlin

THE CATHOLIC archdiocese of Berlin is to establish a commission to investigate allegations of clerical child abuse after an “avalanche” of claims from victims in recent days.

A week after abuse allegations surfaced at a Jesuit school in Berlin, the number of former victims to come forward there has passed 40. Meanwhile, abuse cases continue to surface around the country.

“The numbers are growing from day to day – the whole thing is like an avalanche,” said Ursula Raue, a lawyer asked by Berlin’s Canisius College to act as contact person for pupils abused there in the 1970s and 1980s.

A survey of Germany’s 27 dioceses by Der Spiegel magazine revealed that, since 1995, some 97 priests and church officials have faced child abuse allegations, and 30 have been convicted.

German bishops will discuss the rising spectre of clerical abuse at their annual conference at the end of the month.

“It would be unrealistic to assume that after the current revelations that everything has come to the surface,” said Fr Hans Langedörfer, secretary of the German Bishops’ Conference, to Der Spiegel. “But we want full clarity so that we can help. The revelations show the dark face of the church.”

Church lay organisations have criticised the approach of bishops to abuse allegations so far and have called for the appointment of an independent ombudsman.

German lay organisation “We the Church” called for an end to church taboos surrounding sex education to “end the vicious circle of abuse of power and sexualised violence”.

Source: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2010/0208/1224263954845.html