Catholic Church: Report sees "glaring grievances" on the subject of abuse in the diocese of Hildesheim

Enlarge image

Hildesheim Cathedral (symbol photo)

Photo: Benjamin Westhoff / picture alliance / Benjamin Westhoff / dpa

An independent commission of experts has certified that the Diocese of Hildesheim had "glaring abuses in dealing with sexualised violence" in earlier decades.

As the Lower Saxony diocese announced, there were "no protective measures" for victims during the tenure of the deceased Bishop Heinrich Maria Janssen from 1957 to 1982.

The crimes of priests of the diocese were "kept secret and covered up".

There have been allegations of abuse against Janssen, who died in 1988, for a long time.

They were collected from two people affected in 2015 and 2018.

According to the diocese, the commission found "no further, additional information".

The group was led by the former Lower Saxony Minister of Justice Antje Niewisch-Lennartz (Greens).

The diocese announced that it would continue to expand its processing and prevention work.

"Priests as perpetrators were spared"

Bishop Heiner Wilmer

According to the findings of the commission, the church concentrated on the protection of perpetrators during the period examined and refused to offer those affected any offers of help.

During Janssen's tenure there was apparently "massive injustice against minors in Catholic home institutions in the diocese of Hildesheim" without the bishop intervening.

There are reports of physical, psychological and sexual violence from one home in particular.

The management of the personnel files is also extremely poor.

Bishop Heiner Wilmer described the results of the 400-page study as evidence of a "system failure".

The report shows that the leadership of the diocese at the time turned a blind eye to crimes.

"It was primarily about protecting the institution and the priests - the victims did not appear, priests as perpetrators were spared," explained Wilmer.

At the same time, the bishop announced the establishment of a new staff unit for dealing with and preventing sexualised violence, in which the existing contact points and the expertise within the diocese should be bundled.

The new staff unit is to work closely with a supra-regional processing commission and a council for those affected, which is to be created together with the dioceses in Hamburg and Osnabrück.

The Catholic Church in Germany has been shaken for years by a crisis over sexual abuse in its facilities and a systematic cover-up of these crimes that has taken place for decades.

The processes affect various dioceses and repeatedly lead to new scandals.

kfr / AFP