Church: Marx: Abuse scandal calls “entire system into question”

Church: Marx: Abuse scandal calls “entire system into question”

Munich Cardinal Reinhard Marx spoke to those affected by sexual abuse. He sees the church system in the abuse scandal as “more radical” than before.

According to Munich Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the abuse scandal calls into question the Catholic Church as a “complete system”.

Today he sees it “more radically” than before, said the Archbishop of Munich and Freising on Monday at the “Those Affected Hear” event in Munich, where he spoke to those affected by sexual abuse. He now believes “that we have to dig even deeper,” he said. “That we have to see even more deeply that we are all connected in this system.”

Reports made headlines around the world

In January, the law firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl presented a report on behalf of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising that made headlines around the world. It had concluded that cases of sexual abuse in the diocese had not been adequately addressed for decades.

The experts assume at least 497 victims and 235 alleged perpetrators, but at the same time from a significantly higher number of unreported cases – and from the fact that Munich archbishops – including the later Pope Benedict XVI. – had behaved incorrectly in dealing with it.

Since then, municipalities in Bavaria and the Catholic Church itself have reported rapidly increasing numbers of people leaving. The chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference (DBK), Georg Bätzing, recently said at the spring plenary assembly in the pilgrimage site of Vierzehnheiligen that the faithful were turning their backs on their church “in droves”. According to the district administration department, almost 7,000 people have left the church in Munich alone since the beginning of the year. In the previous year there were around 3300 in the same period and in 2020 around 3800.

Source: Stern

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