GERMANY
The Associated Press
BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s Roman Catholic Church has called off an investigation by a renowned outside expert into sexual abuse by clergy over the past few decades after the two sides fell out.
In 2011, the church asked Prof. Christian Pfeiffer’s Lower Saxony Criminological Research Institute to analyze data on abuse from German dioceses as far back as 1945. It was part of efforts to address the scandal triggered by revelations in 2010 of abuse of children and youth in Germany, Pope Benedict XVI’s homeland, and elsewhere.
However, the German Bishops Conference said Wednesday that “mutual trust is shattered” between the bishops and Pfeiffer, and it was terminating its agreement with the institute. It said it would seek a new partner for the project, without elaborating.
Pfeiffer said that researchers and church worked well together for the first few months, but then resistance emerged, starting with a call from the Munich archdiocese for the researchers “to bow to church requests for stronger controls” on their work.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.