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	Head of German Catholics in Probe over Sex Abuse Claims - Summary Earth Times June 3, 2010 http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/326891,head-of-german-catholics-in-probe-over-sex-abuse-claims.html Berlin - The head of the German Catholic church, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, is to be investigated over claims that he aided and abetted the sexual abuse of children, prosecutors said Wednesday. Zollitsch, who is Archbishop of Freiburg and the Chairman of the German Episcopal Conference, is accused of knowingly re-assigning church duties in 1987 to a priest that had abused children. The state prosecutor in Freiburg, in the south of Germany, made a statement on Wednesday reacting to earlier media reports surrounding Zollitsch's conduct, who at that time was responsible for personnel in the diocese. The case surrounds alleged abuse during the 1960s by a priest that served at the Birnau monastery on Lake Constance. The Freiburg prosecutor said that the case is now being taken over by authorities in Konstanz, the city closest to Birnau. However a spokesman for Zollitsch rejected the allegations Wednesday, saying they were "without any basis." "The archdiocese of Freiburg has only been aware since 2006 that at least one case of sexual abuse took place in the pilgrimage and monastery church at Birnau," the statement said. The spokesman also rejected that Zollitsch had been responsible in 1987 for the renewed tenure of the Birnau priest. Sexual abuse scandals have rocked the church in Germany since January, when dozens of cases emerged involving sexual molestation of minors by priests and other clergy over a period of 50 years at church-run schools.
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