BishopAccountability.org
	Germany Drops Case Claiming Top Bishop Lax on Child Sex - Summary Earth Times July 21, 2010 http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/335885,child-sex-summary.html Konstanz, Germany - German prosecutors closed their file Wednesday on Robert Zollitsch, the country's top Catholic bishop, rejecting claims that in his previous job he might have broken the law by failing to sack a paedophile priest. Zollitsch was accused because he transferred an alleged paedophile in 1987 to a monastery where the priest had parish duties until 1992. Prosecutors in the southern city of Konstanz said the formal allegation that Zollitsch had been an accessory to a crime in the 1990s did not stand up on legal grounds, because there was no evidence that the priest had molested any children in this period. It was probable that the priest had preyed on children earlier, between 1966 and 1968, but that had nothing to do with Zollitsch. The complaint centred on Zollitsch's work as a diocesan personnel executive, 16 years before he became archbishop of Freiburg and chairman of the Conference of German Catholic Bishops. The allegations against Zollitsch came amid a wave of revelations this year showing that German bishops, including Pope Benedict XVI when he was archbishop of Munich, tended to find new jobs for paedophile priests instead of dismissing them. A complainant had told prosecutors Zollitsch should have known in 1987, when he sent the man to work at Birnau Monastery, that the priest was dangerous. The sex attacks in the 1960s cannot be prosecuted because of the statue of limitations. The complainant said he was one of the victims. The archbishop's office said after the prosecutor's announcement that Zollitsch had not been aware of the complaints from the 1960s, nor had he known the priest's exact duties at the monastery. Separately, Zollitsch has admitted to errors in a personnel decision he took in 1995 involving another paedophile priest. The archbishop said he had been mistaken to ask people to keep silent about the allegations. Zollitsch has overseen a crackdown on paedophilia in the church in Germany. A national hotline was set up to hear child-sex complaints.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.