As of: January 18, 2024, 10:31 p.m
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The Protestant Church wants to advance the investigation into cases of sexual abuse.
The Rhenish president is self-critical: The church is learning too slowly.
Düsseldorf - The central reporting office of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland received 76 reports of suspected cases of sexual violence from 2021 to mid-December last year.
Vice President Christoph Pistorius told journalists on Thursday on the sidelines of the state synod in Düsseldorf that 70 suspected cases among parishioners and state church employees had previously been known at the state church level since 1946.
However, the two numbers should not be added together because there is an overlap in at least a third of the cases.
Only the 70 cases were made available for the nationwide study on sexual violence in the Evangelical Church and the Diakonie, which is to be presented on January 25th in Hanover.
The Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) commissioned the independent study at the end of 2020.
Since 2004, 28 disciplinary proceedings have been initiated at the Rhenish church in connection with violations of sexual self-determination, said Pistorius.
Four cases against church officials, teachers and parishioners were still ongoing.
The public prosecutor's office also investigated eleven cases.
Of these, six cases were discontinued, mostly because there was no sufficient suspicion.
A procedure was discontinued against conditions.
Despite the discontinuation, the church continued to investigate independently in three cases and took disciplinary measures in two cases.
President Thorsten Latzel called for a critical investigation into the Protestant churches in Germany into the extent to which their structures promoted sexualized violence or an opaque handling of cases of abuse.
There are sometimes unclear responsibilities of voluntary and professional employees.
Personal relationships and work structures overlapped in communities.
The file management was sometimes very confusing, if cases were even noted.
Self-critically, Latzel said that the church had “taken many learning steps too slowly.”
“People at all levels of our church were often still characterized by a spirit that placed too high a priority on protecting the reputation of the church or officials, higher than the suffering of those affected,” admitted Latzel.
Most recently, the resignation of EKD Council Chairwoman Annette Kurschus in November 2023 shocked the church.
The background was allegations made in a newspaper report that she had known many years ago about suspicions of sexually assaultive behavior against a church employee in the Siegen church district at the time.
With around 2.2 million members, the Rhenish Church is the second largest Protestant regional church in Germany.
dpa