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	Abuse Inquiry Expands in German Bishop’s Case By Nicholas Kulish The New York Times May 7, 2010 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/08/world/europe/08bishop.html BERLIN — A German bishop who offered his resignation after admitting that he had physically abused children as a priest is now under investigation for sexual abuse, yet another blow to the Roman Catholic Church in Germany, which is reeling from a growing child-molestation scandal. According to a report Friday in the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper, prosecutors are looking into a complaint of sexual abuse of an underage boy by Bishop Walter Mixa of Augsburg, an outspoken conservative. Bishop Mixa denied the charges through a lawyer, the newspaper said. The diocese of Augsburg said in a statement that it had passed the new accusation to the prosecutor’s office in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, according to guidelines established by the German Bishops’ Conference in response to the public outcry sexual abuse scandal. The prosecutor’s office in Ingolstadt confirmed Friday that a preliminary investigation was under way against Bishop Mixa, 69, but refused to give further details. “We cannot at this time make any additional statements as to the substance, goal and proceedings because of tactical investigative considerations,” said Helmut Walter, head of the prosecutor’s office. The accusations date from Bishop Mixa’s tenure as bishop in the Bavarian town of Eichstatt, from 1996 to 2005, according to the Augsburger Allgemeine. Bishop Mixa aggressively defended himself for weeks against charges of physically abusing children in an orphanage in the town of Schrobenhausen in the 1970s and 1980s. He submitted his letter of resignation last month after a lawyer hired by the orphanage’s foundation to look into the charges also uncovered evidence of financial improprieties. Pope Benedict XVI has yet to say whether he would accept Bishop Mixa’s resignation. The scandal in Germany began with revelations of sexual abuse at a Jesuit high school in Berlin in January and quickly spread to dioceses nationwide, as hundreds of abuse victims came forward either to the church or prosecutors. The pope himself came under scrutiny for his role in the reassignment to Munich in 1980 of a priest who had molested boys, when Benedict was archbishop there. Thousands of German Catholics have formally withdrawn from the church since the scandal began to spread. In Belgium, the bishop of Bruges, Roger Vangheluwe, stepped down last month after admitting to sexually abusing a boy decades earlier. Several American bishops have stepped down in the wake of accusations of sexual abuse or assault, as did a Norwegian bishop, Georg Mueller, who resigned last year.
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