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Georg Bätzing: Bishop of Limburg and chairman of the German Bishops' Conference
Photo: Arne Dedert / dpa
The victims of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church are to receive compensation payments of up to 50,000 euros on request.
This was announced by the chairman of the German Bishops' Conference (DBK), Georg Bätzing, in Fulda.
The DBK has implemented the new model for compensation for victims of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church despite criticism from victim representatives.
From January 1, those affected can apply for cash benefits.
These will be one-off payments that will be set individually for each person concerned by an independent decision-making body, said Bätzing.
In addition, those affected could be reimbursed for the cost of therapy or couple counseling.
Orientation towards government compensation for pain and suffering
In future, the benefits would be determined by a central and independently staffed committee.
This body should include seven women and men.
It will be staffed with experts from medicine, law, psychology and education, said Bätzing.
The members should not be employed by the church and thus be dependent on it.
As announced in March, the bishops are based on the judgments of state courts on compensation for pain and suffering.
This results in payments of up to 50,000 euros.
The amount will be determined by a new, according to Bätzing independent decision-making body.
So far there has not been a uniform approach by the German dioceses, which is why victims received different benefits depending on the location.
This inconsistency and in some cases only minor payments led to a lot of criticism.
Criticism from victim representatives
The spokesman for the "Eckiger Tisch" victims' initiative, Matthias Katsch, said on Wednesday that one is "afraid" of what the administrative, financial and legal experts of the Catholic Church would have come up with without including those affected.
According to Katsch, the victims' initiative considers payments in the six-digit range to be appropriate, especially since many of those affected are unable to work.
Katsch sees the procedures that the victims would have to undergo in order to receive the money even more critically than the sums.
"Deep retraumatisation" in unprofessional settings is to be feared here.
According to a study of abuse in the Catholic Church, at least 3,677 minors were victims of sexual violence by at least 1,670 clergy between 1946 and 2014.
The number of unreported cases is likely to be high, experts speak of up to 100,000 people affected.
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bbr / dpa / AFP
