Catholic Climbdown, German Herald, March 24, 2010

Catholic Climbdown

German Herald
March 24, 2010

http://germanherald.com/news/Germany_in_Focus/2010-03-24/87/Catholic_climbdown

Trust in the Catholic Church in Germany has fallen off the cliff in the wake of the child sex abuse scandal.

Barely one in six Germans say they now have confidence in the Church. This is accompanied by government statistics showing that people in dioceses affected by paedophile priests are now leaving in disgust in record numbers.

There is also anger directed against German-born Pope Benedict XVI - fewer than one in four people now say they trust him. These are the results of a poll carried out by Stern Magazine to be published today.

Just 17 percent of respondents said they trusted the Church and 24 percent the Pope.

Regensburg, where the pope`s brother Bishop Georg Ratzinger was once in charge of the Domspatzen - "Cathedral Sparrows" - and is now at the centre of abuse allegations, is among those seeing a wave of disillusioned worshippers leaving.

Munich lost 472 Catholic worshippers in March alone - nearly four times the number for the last three months. The figures are precise because Germans must register and deregister if they worship or not as the church is funded by a tax levy on every parishioner which works out at some 800 euros a year per person.

In Passau in Bavaria it is a similar story with media reports saying 300 people have left since the beginning of the year.

Diocese spokesman Wolfgang Duschl said "There has been a significant and rapid increase in the number of people who have been leving the churhc, even in the last few days.

"More left in March after this new wave of allegations. It is worrying."

"Why should I pay my tax to shield paedophile priests who are not brought to account but simply moved around and given a new job elsewhere so they can carry on with their perversions?" asked Waltrau Hanke, one of the disgruntled who has left the faith in Regensburg.

Another woman was quoted in the Taggespiegel newspaper saying "My two sons have been altar boys. I am now so worried incase something happened to them. What am I supposed to do~ ask them if the priest has done something to them."

Other dioceses reporting an increased upswing in departing faithful are Augusburg, Wurzburg, Ulm and Nuremberg. Southern Germany is the bastion of the Catholic faith in Germany as the north is predominantly protestant.

The mood in Germany is that the scandal seems to be growing and will get worse before it gets better. It is not helped by high profile people like composer he director and composer Franz Wittenbrink, who lived in the Regensburg boarding school of the choir until 1967, going on TV to talk about his own abuse.

He said the school had an 'elaborate system of sadistic punishments combined with sexual lust.'

He said the headmaster at the time 'would choose two or three of us boys in the dormitories in the evenings and take them to his flat.'

Mr Wittenbrink said:'Everyone knew about it. I find it inexplicable that the Pope's brother Georg Ratzinger, who had been cathedral bandmaster since 1964, apparently knew nothing about it.'

The poll taken by the Forsa surveying firm found that, even among Catholics, only a minority trusted either the Church or the Pope. Just 39 percent had confidence in the Pope, down from 62 percent at the end of

January, while 34 percent trusted the Church, down from 56 percent.

In contrast, the Protestant Church’s standing has barely been affected by the recent resignation of its leader Margot Kaesmann, who was caught driving drunk