BishopAccountability.org
	Austrian Hotline Reports New Church Abuse Claims ABS-CBN April 2, 2010 http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/world/04/02/10/austrian-hotline-reports-new-church-abuse-claims VIENNA - An Austrian victim support group has received reports of 174 more cases of maltreatment and sexual abuse in Roman Catholic institutions since creating a hotline two weeks ago, the group said Friday. The Platform for Victims of Violence by the Church set up the special number amid a spate of paedophile priest scandals in Europe and the United States which have engulfed the Vatican. "We are learning daily about the methods of education in Catholic institutions in Austria during the 1960s and 1970s," Holger Eich, a psychologist from the group, told a press conference alongside a victim. "They can be summed up in one word -- sadism." Around 150 people had called the hotline and the group had learned of 174 alleged abuse cases, Eich said. Of the cases, 43 percent involved physical violence, 34 percent involved sexual aggression and 23 percent involved "moral violence", he added. Men made up 68 percent of the alleged victims and 74 percent of the perpetrators. "These people want, above all, to be heard, to find psychological healing, they want injustice to be recognised, for people to answer for their actions, and eventually to forgive," said Manfred Deiser, one of the group's founders. He said that financial compensation was not a major motivation for those lodging complaints. Deiser said the group was examining all the claims and could take legal action on behalf of individual victims. Austrian law did not allow a class action against the Church. Austria saw an avalanche of allegations of sexual abuse by clergy members last month. Most of the cases took place in the 1970s and 1980s but the suspected perpetrators were never prosecuted and in many cases were just moved on to other provinces when allegations surfaced. Vienna's archbishop, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, reiterated on Thursday he would allow independent investigations into the claims after appointing a victims' representative to probe the allegations. Deiser said the Platform for Victims of Violence by the Church was sceptical of such "hesitant" gestures of goodwill, adding that he believed victims should approach the group instead of people appinted by the Church. The latest claims came as Pope Benedict XVI marked Good Friday, the Christian world's most solemn day.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.