Topics: Catholicism, News
Germany’s top Roman Catholic bishop on Friday acknowledged mistakes in dealing with allegations against a priest who is believed to have molested boys over more than two decades.
Robert Zollitsch, Archbishop of Freiburg and head of the German Bishops Conference, said he should have checked more intensely into sexual abuse allegations coming from the priest’s congregation in 1992.
The priest, who has not been named, is accused of molesting altar boys and other male youths when he worked in the town of Oberharmersbach from 1968 to 1991. Zollitsch was diocese staff manager at the time and responsible for priest placements.
Zollitsch said he was “shocked about the unfathomable extent of the abuse in Oberharmersbach, which has become apparent only in recent months.”
In the written statement released by his diocese, Zollitsch also said that he regrets his diocese erroneously stated in March that it did not hear about abuse allegations before 1995 when he had already started dealing with the case in 1992.
Prosecutors last month opened an investigation of the bishop for assisting child abuse in another case he handled decades ago. The diocese said at the time that suspicion lacked substance, but Zollitsch did not address that case in his Friday statement.
He has met with victims and their families and apologized to them, the statement said.
The Roman Catholic’s abuse scandal has rocked Germany, former home of Pope Benedict XVI, since the beginning of the year. Hundreds of people claiming to have been abused have come forward.
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