Big clerical sexual abuse scandal in Germany

This May 2019 video says about itself:

The continuing discussion about cases of sexual abuse and allegations concerning Bishop Walter Mixa have led to widespread mistrust of the Catholic Church in Germany. Catholics are leaving the church in growing numbers, and congregations fear collapse. Here is DW’s report from a Bavarian Catholic community.

Translated from Dutch NOS TV today:

Report: widespread sexual abuse within Catholic church in Germany

After the United States, Chile and Australia, the Catholic Church in Germany is also the subject of a major abuse scandal. Sexual abuse has been widespread for decades, according to a report that is in the hands of Der Spiegel.

It concerns 3677 documented cases of sexual abuse from the Second World War until 2014. In one of six cases rape occurred and at least 1670 clergy were involved in the abuse. More than half of the victims were 13 years or younger. In most cases it was about boys.

The numbers are probably a conservative representation of reality, because many cases are probably not registered.

More than 38,000 documents from 27 German dioceses have been investigated. The research was carried out by three universities on behalf of the German bishops’ conference. They have not yet responded to the news.

The Catholic Church is struggling worldwide with abuse scandals. Last month it was announced that in the US state of Pennsylvania 300 priests have abused more than a thousand children. Big abuse cases also came to light in countries such as Chile and Australia.

The pope has called on the heads of all the bishops’ conferences in the world to come to Rome in February for a summit on the prevention of
sexual abuse by Catholic clergy.

A report from Germany’s Catholic church admits to 3,766 cases of child sex abuse by the clergy from 1946 to 2014, according to a leaked copy.