Catholic Church Appoints Council of Specialists, by No, Iceland Review, November 5, 2012

Catholic Church Appoints Council of Specialists

Iceland Review
November 5, 2012

www.icelandreview.com/icelandreview/daily_news/Catholic_Church_Appoints_Council_of_Specialists_0_395033.news.aspx

Photo by Páll Kjartansson.

Bishop of the Catholic Church of Iceland Pétur Burcher has established a council of specialists, which is to provide consultation on the right for damages for victims of sexual and other abuse within the church, following the release of a report confirming the abuse.

The council is also to suggest changes to the church’s work methods when abuse is reported, as well as preventive methods and other improvements, ruv.is reports.

Supreme Court lawyer Eiríkur Elís Þorláksson is to chair the council, on which anthropologist April Frigge and lawyer Skúli Guðmundsson will also have a seat. It is to commence its work immediately and hand in suggestions no later than June 1, 2013.

The investigative committee of the Catholic Church in Iceland concluded that all of the church’s bishops from 1968 to this date, Hinrik Frehen, Alfred Jolsons, Joannes Gijsen and Pétur Burcher, failed the students of Landakotsskóli and neglected their duties.

All four bishops received complaints from parents and former students that Rev. Ágúst Georg, principal of Landakotsskóli, and one of its teachers, Margrét Müller, abused their subjects mentally and sexually, ruv.is reports.

According to the report, the abuse took place from 1956 to 2003. The antagonists abused the children separately or together, humiliated, beat and raped them and inflicted serious and continuous mental abuse, as described on ruv.is.

Representatives of the Catholic Church of Iceland have refrained from commenting to the media. Burcher, the current bishop, is abroad.