GERMANY
Oman Tribune
BERLIN Germany’s Roman Catholic Church revealed on Friday that at least 66 clergy had been accused of sexually abusing children and adults over a 10-year period, with most of the victims male.
The findings were part of a scientific study ordered after the church was thrown into crisis two years ago when hundreds came forward alleging they had been abused as minors between the 1950s and 1980s.
Based on dozens of expert appraisals of Catholic clergy from between 2000 and 2010 submitted by 21 of Germany’s 27 dioceses, it said the clergy had been accused of 576 cases of sexual abuse.
Three-quarters of the 265 alleged targets of abuse were male, the German Bishops’ Conference said, releasing the report drawn up by three forensic centres for research.
Most of the cases took place between the 1960s and 1990s “in a period when a different social awareness and a lower sensitivity to the theme of sexual acts on children and youths still prevailed”, Norbert Leygraf, of the Institute of Forensic Psychiatry at Duisburg-Essen University, said in a statement.
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