GERMANY
Irish Times
Germany’s Roman Catholic bishops cancelled a study into sex abuse scandals within their church today, prompting the lead researcher to accuse them of trying to censor his findings.
Bishop Stephan Ackermann, spokesman on abuse issues for the German Bishops Conference, said the bishops had lost confidence in researcher Christian Pfeiffer and would look for another specialist to continue the study.
Mr Pfeiffer told German Radio the bishops, who had agreed with him in 2011 to open staff files for nine diocese dating back to 1945, had begun demanding changes in the project guidelines including a final veto over publishing its results.
“We regret that this project … cannot be continued and we will have to find a new partner,” Bishop Ackermann said in a statement.
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