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	German Catholic Church Faces Controversy By Kirsten Grieshaber The News Tribune March 6, 2010 http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/03/06/1098256/german-catholic-church-faces-controversy.html BERLIN – In the home country of Pope Benedict XVI, new revelations of child abuse by Roman Catholic priests at German high schools are surfacing almost daily. The Catholic church in Germany – where around 30 percent of people consider themselves Catholic — has apologized for the incidents, but already there are calls for the government to take action because most of the cases date back to the 1970s and 1980s, beyond the reach of statutes and prosecution. The first accusers came forward a month ago in Berlin. Since then, the list of schools and victims who say they were scarred and haunted by alleged abuses has grown. First it was seven alumni of the prestigious Canisius Kolleg prep school in Berlin. Then it was Aloisius Kolleg in Bonn and then St. Blasien, another Jesuit-run boarding school in the Black Forest as well as other Catholic schools in Hamburg, Goettingen and Hildesheim. Recently, the boarding schools Ettal Monastery and St. Ottilien in Bavaria made headlines when allegations about child molestation by Benedictine priests there surfaced. The total number of alleged victims has reached at least 150. Ursula Raue, an attorney appointed by the Jesuit religious order to handle the charges, said she has been overwhelmed by the number of cases that flood her inbox and answering machine daily. Raue said she “heard from mothers, sisters and brothers, whose children or siblings took their own lives or cannot function in daily life because of deep psychological scars.” The majority of the victims are male, because most of the schools involved admitted only boys aged 10 to 19 at the time the abuse took place. Many victims have never talked to their wives or friends about the incidents because “they still feel ashamed when the memories of humiliation and powerlessness come back and when they realize that none of those old wounds have healed,” Raue said.While the focus of the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic church centered on the United States for several years, abuse scandals have in recent years erupted in other countries as well, including Ireland, the Philippines, Poland, Mexico, Italy, Canada and elsewhere. Neither the pope nor the Vatican has made any specific remarks about the abuse scandal in Germany, a Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Ciro Benedettini, said, but he added that Benedict’s previous statements on other such scandals — including most recently about Ireland — are certainly valid for Germany. A Vatican statement last month, after a crisis meeting with Irish bishops, said Benedict called the sexual abuse of children “not only a heinous crime, but also a grave sin which offends God and wounds the dignity of the human person created in his image.” So far, the victims have identified 12 Jesuit priests by name and, in some cases, accused women, Raue said, adding that she had not yet found out if all of the accused were still alive. Several German lawmakers, including Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, have called for an extension of the statute of limitations, and the German Bishops Conference recently issued a statement apologizing for the incidents. They have appointed a special commissioner for all questions regarding sexual abuse of children within the church, but have not announced any further consequences.
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