Archbishop of Munich resigns due to his “co-responsibility” in the “sexual abuse catastrophe” of the German Church

German Cardinal Reinhard Marx asks Pope Francis to accept his resignation as Archbishop of Munich and Freising for his “co-responsibility” in the “sexual abuse catastrophe” committed by Church officials over the past decades.

In a letter to the Sovereign Pontiff on May 21 and published Thursday by the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, Marx admitted that sexual abuse investigations have shown “a lot of personal failures and administrative errors”.

“In essence, for me it is about share responsibility for the catastrophe of sexual abuse by Church leaders over the past few decades, ”Marx wrote to the Pope, explaining the reasons for his decision.

In February 2019, Marx said that the Catholic Church destroyed files on perpetrators of sexual abuse.

“The files which could have documented these terrible acts and indicated the names of those responsible were destroyed or not created“said the president of the German Episcopal Conference during a historic summit in the Vatican on the fight against pedophilia.

“Sexual abuse of children and adolescents is due, to a significant extent, to the abuse of power by the administration”, said in his speech to the summit assistants.

“Instead of punishing the culprits, it was the victims who were reprimanded and silenced”, to complain.

“The procedures and procedures established to prosecute these crimes have been deliberately ignored., and even deleted or canceled. In fact, victims’ rights have been violated and left to the free will of individuals, ”Marx denounced.

The German criticized the fact that the The “pontifical secret” is often presented as a justification by the Church and even worse in cases such as sexual abuse by priests.

The cardinal called for more transparency on the trials led by the Church and demanded that the number of cases considered by ecclesiastical courts and details about them be disclosed.

(With information from EFE and AFP)

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