 Thoughts on the Child Abuse Scandals in the Catholic Church Dear friends, Our prayer for Europe is more urgent than ever. Terrible deeds of a few overshadow the preparations for Easter and deprive many people in devout service of Christ of the trust they deserve. In everything there is something we can learn. Maybe we need to ask ourselves the question: Do we care enough for our priests and pastors? Do we show gratefulness for their service, do we give them the feeling that they are needed? Are we there for them as friends when it gets quiet on the market place? Do we invite them to our houses and families – or do we leave them to being alone? For this Letter for Europe we collected some of the highlights in the public debate on the child abuse scandals in the Catholic Church. We choose interesting quotes and give links to the full articles – which are however currently only available in German. Please continue to pray for a Christian Europe – our Prayer is needed most urgently. Happy Easter! Your Europe for Christ - Team *** (Cicero) Constantin Magnis interviewed Hans-Ludwig Kröber, Germany’s most famous criminal psychiatrist: „Rather kissing makes you pregnant than celibacy paedophiliac!“ Question: According to a counting of Der Spiegel 94 cases of abuse by Catholic clergy and laity was made known since 1995: „Well, this number is extremely low for someone who knows about these issues from a criminological perspective. In a year, 15.000 cases of child abuse are registered by the police on average. Question: Are you Catholic? “No. … [But] my visits as an expert in the Vatican and the German bishops’ conference impressed me very much. I am in exchange with experts and researchers which gives me opportunities to compare, and the bishops in the Vatican working on this issue were the most intelligent and thoughtful group of people I ever talked to.” *** (kath.net) A victim of child abuse in her own family writes: „Are the media really interested in the victims – or do they abuse the victims to reach another goal? If it is true – as the Kriminologische Institut Hannover says – that every year up to a million children are being abused, then the media are terribly biased. What is going on in families is not mentioned - and this is by far more than what is happening in Catholic institutions. *** (Tagesanzeiger) Vicar-General of Swiss Diocese Basel, Roland Trauffer, says in an interview: „Society suffers from deregulated sexuality.“ Question: Leaving the Church? „.. I ask to remember that the greater abyss of abuse outside the Church is not being mentioned. If you think of this, one would actually have to leave society!“ *** (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) Manfred Lütz schreibt writes „…Before Jan Carl Raspe became a member of the [terrorist group] RAF, he praised in his „Kursbuch“ (1969) Commune2, in which adults forced children against their wishes to try sexual intercourse [amongst themselves]. The Green Party tabled a request to de-criminalize sex with children in 1985, and still in 1989 a book published by the renowned German Publishing House of Medical Doctors supported the legalisation of paedo-sexual contacts. In these times Catholic sexual morals were seen as a repression of the “emancipation of a child’s sexuality”. … Whatever one may think about Catholic sexual morals - in times of belittlement of paedophilia it was a bastion against child abuse. …”
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