As of: February 21, 2024, 4:21 p.m
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During a solidarity campaign with victims of abuse in the Catholic Church, the light casts the shadow of a cross through one of the windows of the Church of the Nativity of Mary.
© Nicolas Armer/dpa
It's about large sums of money.
Several victims of abuse want to sue the Diocese of Trier for compensation.
In other dioceses such complaints are even less concrete.
Trier - Several victims of abuse want to sue the Catholic diocese of Trier for larger amounts of compensation: Two civil lawsuits from victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy are currently being prepared, said the chairman of the Association of Abuse Victims and Those Affected in the Diocese of Trier (Missbit), Hermann Schell, on Wednesday in Trier.
Another ten affected people wanted to wait for the first trial and then decide on their own lawsuits.
He said it is also expected that there will be further complaints from those affected who are not connected to the association.
The possible plaintiffs are based on a groundbreaking ruling by the Cologne regional court from June 2023, which awarded a victim 300,000 euros in compensation.
It was a man who had been sexually abused by a priest for many years as an altar boy in the 1970s.
The Cologne judgment was the first court decision of its kind.
The Trier association Missbit announced that it would provide financial support to abuse victims with compensation claims against the diocese of Trier with an aid fund.
Such civil suits could cost 30,000 euros or more, said Schell.
The money from the relief fund should help those affected to enforce their claims.
To this end, donations and loans should be obtained to pre-finance the lawsuits.
Specific lawsuit cases
“I was raped several times a week for four years by a priest in the Benedictine Abbey of St. Matthias,” said Trier opera singer Thomas Kießling (61) on Wednesday.
He was initially ten years old when the crimes occurred.
He has now decided to sue, also because he wants to come to terms with it.
First he wanted to sue the monastery, then the diocese.
“I am mentally ill,” he said of the consequences to this day.
So far he has received 15,000 euros.
The second possible plaintiff, who is expected to file his lawsuit in mid- to late March, was abused by a priest for over four years.
He was initially seven years old at the time, said a legal advisor to the association.
burden on plaintiffs
The association also wants to provide human support to the plaintiffs, as such proceedings are stressful, said Schell.
In serious cases, 300,000 euros in compensation should be “the lower limit”.
It is regrettable that Trier Bishop Stephan Ackermann rejected out-of-court settlement negotiations and a cooperation agreement.
The bishop is now forcing those affected into public court hearings, said Schell.
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The diocese of Trier had previously stated that it was expecting corresponding lawsuits for compensation for pain and suffering.
They have been announced.
A spokeswoman for the diocese said in response to a dpa request that no complaints had been received by the diocese as of Wednesday.
Since the abuse scandal in the Catholic Church was uncovered in 2010, the Diocese of Trier has paid a total of over 2.1 million euros by the end of 2022 to recognize the suffering of 164 victims.
The Diocese of Trier has a good 1.2 million Catholics in Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland.
What is it like in other dioceses?
In the diocese of Speyer “there are currently no indications that such lawsuits have been initiated,” as a spokeswoman in Speyer announced.
One expects a further increase in applications to the Independent Commission for Recognition Services (UKA) for new cases, which has led to an increase in the payment amounts in the past.
“This procedure is much easier for those affected to deal with than a court case,” said the spokeswoman.
So far, the diocese of Speyer has paid around 2.6 million euros, including therapy costs, to those affected.
There is currently no specific lawsuit in the diocese of Mainz either.
The spokesman for the diocese in Mainz said there were currently “out-of-court discussions about questions of balancing the filing of a lawsuit and the UKA objection procedure.”
The diocese encouraged those affected to exploit all the possibilities of the UKA procedure.
Since March 2023, it has been possible to lodge an objection against the commission's decision.
Part of the church's process for acknowledging the suffering is that legal recourse remains open to all those affected.
In the diocese of Mainz, a total of around 1.7 million euros have so far been paid out to 109 affected people.
The lowest amount was 1,000 euros, the highest amount was 110,000 euros.
The diocese of Mainz has so far spent almost 282,000 euros on therapies.
Processing remains an ongoing topic
Mainz Bishop Peter Kohlgraf also sees a lot of work in dealing with abuse.
The study on abuse in the diocese of Mainz, which was presented a year ago, was “a step,” he told the German Press Agency.
“But we are far from finished.” He doesn’t know whether the work can even come to an end during his time as bishop.
It is clear that the communities in which pastors are accused need a lot of care.
The study encouraged a number of other affected people to come forward.
“We also caught up on church procedures,” said Kohlgraf.
“We have to think again about how we deal with the accused, not just in Mainz, but throughout the entire bishops’ conference.”
Proceedings by public prosecutors or even church proceedings sometimes take a very long time, which is stressful.
A working group has been formed in the diocese of Mainz to deal with the question of how memorial culture is dealt with - also in view of revelations about the former Bishop of Mainz, Karl Cardinal Lehmann (1983-2017).
dpa