The Pope has rejected Archbishop Reinhard Marx's resignation.
Now he continues to put pressure on the public - with a provocative question.
Munich - It is now clear: Reinhard Marx remains Archbishop of Munich and Freising for the time being - despite his resignation to the Vatican.
The cardinal uses his office to continue to drum up publicly for a cultural change and the clarification of cases of abuse in the Catholic churches.
Marx wants to further work on cases of violence in Catholic children's homes.
“Can we imagine Jesus beating children?
Hardly! ”, Said Marx according to a statement on Wednesday on the 101-year existence of the regional association of Catholic institutions and services of educational assistance in Bavaria.
"And yet it also happened in our facilities."
Cardinal Reinhard Marx increases pressure in the dispute over child abuse: "Would Jesus have beaten children?"
He called for a “sober look into the past”, which made it clear: “The processing of the darker sides of our history is not over.” The church must, together with science and society, consider “what new knowledge is there and what is going on Opportunities as well as needs and challenges "are available.
"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.
Catholic Church and child abuse: Pope envoy end visit to Cologne
Attempts to come to terms with the issue are also underway in the Archdiocese of Cologne. Apostolic Visitators completed investigations there on Monday. For a week, the two ambassadors of the Pope questioned representatives of the largest German diocese about the crisis of confidence surrounding Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, which had been smoldering for months. On Tuesday the Stockholm Cardinal Anders Arborelius and the Rotterdam Bishop Hans van den Hende left again. You would now create a report for Pope Francis, said a spokeswoman for van den Hende of the dpa.
It is believed that this report could decide Woelki's future. From church circles it was learned that many of those questioned had expressed themselves critical of Woelki to the visitors. It is by no means just about victims of sexual abuse or known critics of the cardinal, but sometimes also about church people who hold similar conservative views as he. The visitors also spoke to Woelki himself. (
dpa / fn
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