RE: Watford church leader Mike Pilavachi 'massaged young male interns'
September 25, 2023 at 3:28 pm
A statue of late cardinal accused of abuse removed from outside a German cathedral
![[Image: wirestory_d592a5552d55f688811c54dbbc8efa....jpg?w=608]](https://i.abcnewsfe.com/a/056f5ba7-495d-4b15-8a47-77f19db44ae0/wirestory_d592a5552d55f688811c54dbbc8efad0_16x9.jpg?w=608)
The accusations against Cardinal Franz Hengsbach, who died in 1991, added to a long-running scandal over abuse by clergy that has shaken the German church.
Last week, the Essen diocese said there were suspicions that Hengsbach may have abused a 16-year-old girl in the 1950s when he was an auxiliary bishop in nearby Paderborn, and that another person — according to German news agency dpa, also a woman — also accuses him of abusing them in 1967, when he was bishop of Essen.
In a letter to parishes released on Friday, Essen's current bishop, Franz-Josef Overbeck, apologized for his mistakes in handling the allegations.
He said he had heard about the first accusation in 2011 but did nothing after the Vatican determined that it was not plausible.
In 2018, a church-commissioned report concluded that at least 3,677 people were abused by clergy in Germany between 1946 and 2014. More than half of the victims were 13 or younger, and nearly a third served as altar boys.
“The suspected acts and the cover-up strategy of the church that has once again been documented destroy what confidence remains,” Irme Stetter-Karp said in a statement. “Once again, the impression arises that the perpetrators, and not those affected, were protected.”
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wir...-103457430
The accusations against Cardinal Franz Hengsbach, who died in 1991, added to a long-running scandal over abuse by clergy that has shaken the German church.
Last week, the Essen diocese said there were suspicions that Hengsbach may have abused a 16-year-old girl in the 1950s when he was an auxiliary bishop in nearby Paderborn, and that another person — according to German news agency dpa, also a woman — also accuses him of abusing them in 1967, when he was bishop of Essen.
In a letter to parishes released on Friday, Essen's current bishop, Franz-Josef Overbeck, apologized for his mistakes in handling the allegations.
He said he had heard about the first accusation in 2011 but did nothing after the Vatican determined that it was not plausible.
In 2018, a church-commissioned report concluded that at least 3,677 people were abused by clergy in Germany between 1946 and 2014. More than half of the victims were 13 or younger, and nearly a third served as altar boys.
“The suspected acts and the cover-up strategy of the church that has once again been documented destroy what confidence remains,” Irme Stetter-Karp said in a statement. “Once again, the impression arises that the perpetrators, and not those affected, were protected.”
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wir...-103457430
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
