Sexual abuse in the diocese of Speyer: 150 accused!

Sexual abuse in the diocese of Speyer: 150 accused!

A comprehensive study of sexual abuse within the diocese of Speyer discloses terrifying results. The study carried out by Prof. Sylvia Schraut and her team at the University of Mannheim comprises 473 pages and was initiated by an independent commission in April 2023. The study is designed for a period of four years and is said to shed light on all suspected cases since 1946. At least 150 alleged perpetrators assumed, including 109 clergymen and 41 non-church persons, such as RP online

The diocese of Speyer, which comprises around 1.57 million people, 437,000 of them, is faced with the dark history of its own institutional failure. The study shows that about half of the documented acts were committed in the 1950s and 1960s, often in church homes. Many of these cases only became public afterwards, especially after 2000. In the analysis, life data from around 1,313 clergymen have been taken into account since 1946, but no special stock on the subject of abuse could be found in the archive.

structural problems within the church

The investigation is open that sexual abuse of power has often been assessed as individual misconduct, while the underlying structural problems in the institution were largely ignored. For example, Prof. Schraut describes the accused as often from an authoritarian milieu, many of them were born before 1920 and had war experience. These aspects have contributed to the creation of a system of covering up, in which the church either accused the accused or protected them from accusations, according to the analysis of Tagesschau .

Especially in the six institutions mentioned in the diocese of Speyer, including children's homes and boarding schools in Speyer, Landau-Queichheim, Landstuhl, Pirmasens and Homburg/Saar, systematic violence took place until the 1970s. The study authors emphasize that the Catholic Church did not recognize its mistakes and thus permanently neglected the possibility of prevention. Bernd Held, representative of the advisory board, emphasizes the urgency of structural changes in order to prevent future cases.

effects and next steps

The number of those affected who have registered with the legal office of the diocese is below 300, which raises the question of how many other cases may not be known. So far, the diocese has paid around 3.6 million euros to 96 affected people, including therapy costs. Bishop Karl-Heinz Wiesemann made the case of a deceased vicar of general who was dealt with in the study, which caused great horror. Vicar General Markus Magin sees the study as a possibility for a learning process within the diocese and emphasizes the importance of the topic for the Catholic Church as a whole.

The specific recommendations for prevention do not result from the study, since historians do not act as a political advisor in these questions, according to the argument in the analysis, which, among other things, addresses information from the Bundestag that indicate similar problems as in explained.