Head of German laity wants a state-sponsored Truth Commission to investigate the Church

The President of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), Irme Stetter-Karp, has sharply distanced herself from the former Chairman of the German Bishops' Conference and Archbishop of Freiburg, Robert Zollitsch. At the same time, she called on the Bundestag to establish a truth commission and to set legal standards for dealing with abuse in all parts of society. Neither the churches nor other institutions should have the possibility in future to undermine a coming to terms with abuse.

Stetter-Karp said Zollitsch was a hypocrite who had completely ignored church law in dealing with abuse, lied to the public and protected perpetrators of abuse. She described the discussion process in the church organised by Zollitsch in 2010 after the scandal was uncovered as a diversionary manoeuvre intended to "gelatinise" the problems.

She did not overlook the fact that leading bishops like Zollitsch or Cardinal Karl Lehmann (1936-2018) from Mainz had systematically prevented clarification, the ZdK president said. At the same time, Stetter-Karp admitted that the Catholic Committee had also taken too long to approach those affected by abuse. In the meantime, however, there is good cooperation.

The majority of the Catholic bishops in Germany, the ZdK president said, had understood that the reforms of the Catholic Church discussed in the "Synodal Path" since 2019 had to continue. It was clear, she said, that the Church's current system of power had to come to an end. "Those who refuse the necessary structural and substantive renewal of the Church are, not least, denying Catholics their home."

Five criminal complaints received

An investigation published in mid-April into sexualised violence and concealment of acts of abuse in the Archdiocese of Freiburg finds former Archbishops Robert Zollitsch (84) and Oskar Saier (1932-2008) guilty of serious misconduct and serious violations of the law in their handling of criminal offences by priests. The authors of the abuse report accuse Zollitsch of breaking the law, protecting perpetrators and covering up sexualised violence. Zollitsch has not yet commented on the new findings. He referred to a video message from October 2022, in which he admitted mistakes and asked the victims of abuse for forgiveness.

According to the Catholic News Agency (KNA), the Public Prosecutor's Office in Freiburg announced on Tuesday that five private persons have filed complaints against the archbishop after the publication of the abuse report. The authority left it open whether these also include criminal charges filed by victims of abuse. The accusation of obstruction of justice is being investigated. At the same time, the authorities are investigating whether the abuse report published on 18 April provides new evidence of possible criminal offences.

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Cathcon: The instrumentalisation of the abuse crisis to facilitate the power grab by the lay pseudo-clerical elites continues unabated.