Mayor calls for resignation of Bishop and Cardinal

After the presentation of a report on sexual abuse in the Diocese of Trier, the Mayor of Saarbrücken, Uwe Conradt (CDU), has called for the resignation of Trier's bishop, Stephan Ackermann. "The office bearers in the diocese have responsibility themselves and have not lived up to it until recently," Conradt wrote on the social network Linkedin. Ackermann's predecessor, now Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich, should also resign from his office, Conradt demanded.

Conradt was reacting to the first interim report of the independent commission for the processing of sexual abuse in the Diocese of Trier (UAK), which was presented on Thursday. The report showed how those responsible in the Diocese of Trier had covered up sexual abuse by priests over decades in the past. From 1946 to 2021, 513 victims and 195 accused or convicted perpetrators were recorded, the report said.

These numbers are frightening, Conradt wrote. "It is time for office holders, especially former Trier Bishop Reinhard Marx and current Bishop Stephan Ackermann, to take responsibility and resign from their posts." Ackermann has been Bishop of Trier since May 2009. The Diocese of Trier includes about 1.3 million Catholics in Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland.

The Commission began its work about a year ago. It announced further investigations to be able to assess the "clear role and responsibility" of the respective leadership and bishops. By mid-October, a first study on the abuse during the tenure of the former Bishop of Trier, Bernhard Stein (1904-1993), against whom there have long been allegations of a cover-up, should be presented.

The Association of Abuse Victims in the Diocese of Trier (Missbit) said on Saturday that it expected the UAK's research to yield much higher figures. "The dark field suggests tenfold figures," Hermann Schell announced for the board.

Source

The Mayor's Statement on Linkedin

How many victims of abuse will it take before we end the silence? 

Today, the interim report of the Working Commission in the Diocese of Trier was presented - it is an unbelievable report, even with all that was already known. For me, it represents a turning point, there must be no "business as usual"! 

The victims of abuse need our solidarity, our support and our joint commitment to a church without abuse. 

For far too long, ordinary church members like me have remained silent about the events in our Diocese and in our church. 

The Commission for the Study of Abuse deserves thanks for its work. Since June of last year, it has identified a total of 513 persons affected by name or anonymously (approximately 1/3 women 2/3 men) for the period since 1946 and 193 men and two women who could be recorded as accused or convicted perpetrators. Through this work, it is now official that it was not just a matter of individual misconduct and crimes, but a system of vanity, abuse and cover-up. 

These figures, which - as I said - refer to the small diocese of Trier alone, are frightening. 

What is unbearable is the attitude with which those responsible in the Diocese have dealt with the perpetrators (even if they have been convicted). The Diocese of Trier is "to be understood as part of a universal church" in which "until the recent past, covering up sexual abuse was the order of the day" - this statement by the Commission makes it clear that abuse was obviously covered up with a system. 

However, this does not excuse anything, because the officials in the Diocese themselves have responsibility and have not lived up to it in any way until recently. 

It is time for officials, especially the former Bishop of Trier, Reinhard Marx and the current Bishop Stephan Ackermann, to take responsibility and resign from their posts.

In my opinion, people who abuse children have no place in a Christian Church. For them we have a Penal Code and a penal system. This should also apply fully to church officials. We also need a discussion about church privileges against this background and also in the CDU. 

What is needed now is a renewal of the Church. We urgently need a reform process in the church that restores its credibility