German Church Sets Rules on Abuse

[European Pressphoto Agency Stephan Ackermann, the bishop of Trier, announces new guidelines.]

 

The German guidelines, which are meant to improve upon rules that German bishops implemented in 2002, come seven months after several decades-old abuse allegations at a Jesuit preparatory school in Berlin unleashed an outpouring of similar stories.

New initiatives to crack down on abusive priests and help victims seek justice are also forthcoming from the Belgian Catholic church, which is roiling from an abuse scandal of its own. A church spokesman said Monday that new efforts will be announced in two weeks.

The Belgian statement came after Belgian Cardinal Godfried Danneels apologized following Belgian newspaper reports that the cardinal had sought to quiet abuse allegations against a top bishop.

Belgian papers published transcripts of tape recordings secretly made by a nephew of Bishop Roger Vangheluwe, whose allegations of sexual abuse against his uncle touched off a firestorm in Belgium. In the tapes, the cardinal is heard telling the accuser that “it would be better that you wait” for the abusive bishop to retire. “I don’t know whether it would be to your advantage to make a lot of noise about it. Neither for you, nor for him,” he added.

Bishop Vangheluwe has admitted to the abuse. Through a spokesman, Cardinal Danneels said Monday he had taken the “wrong approach” to the matter.

The German church’s new rules, which go into effect immediately, toughen the church’s 2002 requirements for reporting abuse allegations to law-enforcement authorities but don’t mark a radical departure.

Under the previous guidelines, church authorities were required to report any “established” cases of abuse to law-enforcement authorities, unless it was the wish of the victim not to take the case further—a policy that some German lawmakers had criticized for giving the church too much latitude in determining whether abuse cases were valid.

Under the new guidelines, church officials must report any plausible allegation to prosecutors. Requests to the contrary by alleged victims must be weighed against whether other potential victims may have an interest in pursuing prosecution.

Stephan Ackermann, the Bishop of Trier, was appointed to coordinate the revisions. He acknowledged in a briefing Tuesday that the new guidelines still left the door open for exceptions. “We have to balance the interest in cooperating with authorities with a victim’s possible wish for confidentiality,” he said.

The revised rules provide more specific guidance in reporting abuse cases to law-enforcement authorities than does the Vatican, which so far has said local church officials should comply with their countries’ civil reporting laws.

The German guidelines also require each diocese to appoint an outside group to which clerical-abuse allegations can be reported, either an ombudsman or committee of people from outside the diocese’s administration.

The revised rules stop short of measures U.S. bishops implemented in 2002 that effectively ban priests found to have committed abuse from further pastoral work. The German rules call for permanently removing abusive priests from posts that involve working with children. But such priests could return to other work within the church if a professional assessment determined they were suitable.

Abuse-victim advocacy groups criticized the German effort for not going far enough to root out abuse or remove officials who had been credibly accused of abuse or failure to report abuse.  

“For decades, nearly every diocese in which a major child sex-abuse scandal has emerged has adopted or tweaked written policies,” Barbara Blaine, a member of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said in a statement. “It rarely makes any difference, other than mollifying some naïve parishioners.”