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Stephan Ackermann (December 2021): »The topic will not let us go«
Photo: Harald Tittel / dpa
After about twelve years, Bishop Stephan Ackermann of Trier is resigning from his position as abuse commissioner for the German Bishops' Conference.
The diocese of Trier announced that he would make the task available for the autumn plenary assembly of the bishops in September.
The announcement of the change in personnel comes a few months after SPIEGEL research showed the extent of the abuse scandal in the Diocese of Trier.
The responsibility for the topic of sexual abuse in the church area will be placed on a broader personal basis in the future, it is now said.
Ackermann took over the newly created office in February 2010 after the abuse scandal had started.
"A new and broader responsibility structure is needed as soon as possible, so that the Catholic Church in Germany can do even more justice to the complexity of the subject and the dimension of the field of activity in the future," according to Ackermann, according to the statement: "The subject does not let us go, in the On the contrary: with increasing awareness not only of forms of sexualized violence, the questions expand and require appropriate answers.«
SPIEGEL research last December showed the extent of the abuse scandal in the Diocese of Trier.
Church leaders are said to have protected suspected perpetrators in some cases.
Ackermann, for example, left a priest convicted of dozens of abuses in charge of a hospital and a nursing home until 2012.
Criticism of the Advisory Board
In the past few weeks, further criticism of Ackermann had been raised.
The "Trierer Volksfreund" had reported that Ackermann had made public the real name of a victim of abuse against her will in a Trier diocese meeting.
According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Ackermann then signed a cease-and-desist declaration.
The Advisory Board of the German Bishops' Conference had criticized Ackermann.
He disqualified himself as abuse officer.
Even though Ackermann apologized to the woman and signed a cease-and-desist letter, his behavior was "unacceptable and neither understandable nor excusable."
The chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, Bishop Georg Bätzing, declared last autumn that, at Ackermann's suggestion, he would develop a concept for reorganizing the tasks.
He acknowledged Ackermann's decision to resign from office "with respect".
"For more than twelve years, Bishop Ackermann has competently taken on a far-reaching task filled with tireless commitment," he says - and thanked the Bishop of Trier for his service as abuse officer.
ptz/dpa