They have confirmed at least 314 sexual abuses in the Prin …

An independent investigation requested by the authorities of Catholic Church of Germany revealed that in the Archdiocese of Cologne, the most important of this country, There were 202 priests and religious who sexually abused at least 314 children and youth, half of whom were under the age of 14..

The report which documented the cases in detail over more than 800 pages rocked the Catholic leaders of this city, who learned of the abuses and did not respect their duty to denounce them and act accordingly.

The two most senior officials involved in these cases are the Archbishop of Hamburg, Stefan Heße, and the deceased cardenal joachim meisner, Archbishop of Cologne from 1989 to 2014, when Pope Francis accepted his resignation.

The number of crimes committed by rank and file clerics and members of the Catholic clergy occurred between 1975 and 2018as verified by Bjoern Gercke, the revealing report lawyer who documented the cases.

Gercke’s research documented 314 cases but refers to many more that could not be verified due to lack of supporting documents.

The report was prepared by a law firm in the city of Cologne. There it is indicated that Stefan Heße was responsible for 11 cases in which he did not report them, as established by canon law. The late Meisner is charged with 24 cases.

Heße has dismissed his responsibility for the alleged abuse of minors, although his proven malicious omission dates from 2006 to 2012, when he was chief of staff of the diocese of Cologne; and between 2012 and 2015, when he held the post of vicar general.

However, who was exonerated of all wrong was Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, suspected of having wanted to hide the sexual abuse. At first, the prelate refused to carry out this investigation which Gercke finally carried out, which provoked serious complaints from various sectors.

Hundreds of faithful Catholics have walked away from the church in rejection. Even the head of the assembly of bishops Georg Bätzing himself condemned the abuses. After that, Woelki had to request that the investigation be carried out.

Gercke said that in a third of all cases (75 in total) corresponding to the Archdiocese of Cologne, it was found that Meisner was not responsible for communicating, punishing and preventing this type of behavior..

“I feel shocked and ashamed,” Woelki said briefly. and in a first reaction when the report was received in front of the press. He admitted that there had been a “cover-up” in Cologne and later announced the temporary dismissal of his auxiliary bishop, Dominikus Schwaderlapp, and the head of the archiepiscopal court, Günter Assenmacher, for breach of his obligations.

The authors of the report noted the lack of official and reliable documents on all the cases analyzed. There were papers which were destroyed in accordance with the norms of canon law, as explained.

The contents of the report are known after months of criticism from the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in Germany for the lack of clarity in dealing with the issue of child abuse and in the context of increasing neglect of the Catholic faithful. In 2019, 272,771 apostasies were recorded.

The president of the German bishops, Georg Bätzing, admitted that “we must all submit to criticism”. However, he rejected charges against the bishops for “keeping quiet or doing nothing for years” in connection with the issue of child abuse.

Regarding the consequences of the report, we will have to wait until March 23, when Cardinal Woelki will appear before the press. In the German media Mention is made of the case of a priest from Düsseldorf, alleged perpetrator of child abuse, on which Woelki decided not to act.