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Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Archbishop of Munich and Freising (archive picture)
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Bernd von Jutrczenka / dpa
The Archbishop of Munich and Freising, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, wants cases of violence in Catholic children's homes to be further processed.
“Can we imagine Jesus beating children?
Hardly! ”Said Marx, according to a statement on Wednesday.
"And yet it also happened in our facilities."
In Bavarian homes, people under protection are said to have been mistreated in the past, but also sexually abused and allegedly forced into child prostitution.
Former inmates of the Hansel and Gretel children's home in the Bavarian town of Oberammergau reported such attacks in the 1960s and 1970s.
Back then, the home was sponsored by the City of Munich.
The staff, however, was provided by the Order of the Niederbronn Sisters.
Former nuns of this order are also suspected of abuse in a children's home in Speyer, Rhineland-Palatinate.
There, too, children are said to have been forced into prostitution.
The order of the Niederbronn sisters and the city of Munich denied the allegations of child prostitution in Oberammergau.
Although, according to the city, several former residents have
Allegations of abuse against clergymen.
However, there is no information about monetary payments for sexual services of the children in the home.
Marx now called for a “sober look into the past” which made it clear: “The processing of even the darker sides of our history is not over.” The Church, together with science and society, must consider “what new knowledge is there and what opportunities as well as needs and challenges «.
"The processing in the individual institutions, the look at history - we cannot simply put that aside."
Against the background of the scandal involving a thousandfold sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, on May 21st, in a letter to the Vatican, Marx offered to resign, which Pope Francis refused.
ala / dpa