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Cardinal Marx no longer wants to have a Federal Cross of Merit
Photo: Tobias Hase / dpa
Cardinal Reinhard Marx asked Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in a letter not to award him the Federal Cross of Merit as planned.
This was announced by the Diocese of Munich.
Accordingly, Marx thanked Steinmeier for the "high honor of the award," to which the head of state "held on to in an appreciative and benevolent manner, also in response to public criticism."
"My big request to you is not to carry out the award," it says literally in the letter to Steinmeier. "I am convinced that this is the right step with consideration for those who are obviously offended by the award, and especially with consideration for those affected." Cardinal Marx declared that he also wanted to prevent negative interpretations with regard to other people who received the award.
The Advisory Board for Affected Persons in the Archdiocese of Cologne had previously appealed to the Federal President not to carry out the award for the time being because of the abuse scandal in the Catholic Church.
According to the advisory board, which represents victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests, the allegation of the cover-up is "far from cleared" by Marx, and various investigations have not yet been completed.
For those affected, the honor is almost unbearable.
Affected Advisory Board calls for detailed investigation
"The Federal Cross of Merit may only be awarded to Cardinal Marx if it is clearly proven that he was not guilty of any cover-up and that he was not guilty of any clarification," says Peter Bringmann-Henselder, member of the Advisory Council for Affected Persons.
Despite the criticism of the award planned for Friday, the Federal President's Office had held on to it and argued that Marx had been particularly committed to justice and solidarity.
Marx wrote about the allegations of the Advisory Council for Affected Persons: »I take the criticism that is now being expressed by people who are affected by sexual abuse in the area of the Church very seriously, regardless of the correctness of the individual statements in open letters and in the media . "
Abuse Commission receives hundreds of claims from injured parties
Meanwhile, the abuse scandal in the Catholic Church is preoccupying an independent commission more than expected.
At the beginning of the year, the commission set up by the bishops began work to examine compensation for victims of abuse.
Since then, the Commission has seen an onslaught.
Commission chair Margarete Reske announced that 909 applications for recognition services have been received since January.
However, a decision could only be made in 67 cases - due to the large number of applications, the commission decided to prioritize processing, which is mainly based on the age of the applicants.
more on the subject
Offer of the Catholic Church: Victims of abuse can apply for compensation payments from January
According to the information, 744 of the applications are so-called old applications from those affected who had already received recognition amounts in the past - but these were mostly lower than possible in the meantime.
165 cases are initial applications.
The commission's seven volunteer experts have met five times so far.
Instead of at least quarterly as planned, the commission is to meet significantly more frequently due to the high number of applications.
Victims' initiative criticized the procedure
The Catholic German Bishops' Conference only set up the commission last November. After each diocese had previously settled compensation itself and victims of abuse were compensated very differently in some cases, the commission is now supposed to ensure comprehensible compensation. The commission works independently. In particularly serious cases, in which payments of more than 50,000 euros are in the room, an agreement with the church must be reached before compensation.
The victims' initiative »Eckiger Tisch« had criticized the procedure last year.
The victims' initiative considered payments in the six-digit range to be appropriate, especially since many of those affected were unable to work.
Even more critical than the sums, the initiative saw the procedures that the victims would have to undergo in order to receive the money.
A “deep retraumatisation” in unprofessional settings is to be feared here.
ptz / AFP / dpa