Bayerns Kirche in ihrer schwersten Krise

Die Reihe von Missbrauchsfällen und Misshandlungen durch Priester und Pater in Klosterschulen erschüttert die Katholiken im FreistaatMan kann den Bayern ihr Engagment in der Kirche nicht absprechen.Tausende stellen sich an diesem Wochenende im ganzen Freistaat bei den Pfarrgemeinderatswahlen wieder für ein Ehrenamt zur Verfügung.Doch ihr Glaube an die Katholische Kirche wird gerade auf eine harte Probe gestellt.Fast täglich wurden vergangene Woche neue Scheußlichkeiten bekannt: sexueller Missbrauch von Kindern und Jugendlichen, Prügelorgien und Pornografie in Klosterschulen. Erstmals hielt es die Staatsmacht sogar für angezeigt, ein Kloster zu durchsuchen.Die Staatsanwaltschaft München II rückte in die Benediktinerabtei Ettal ein und nahm Akten mit.

http://www.welt.de/die-welt/vermischtes/article6673749/Bayerns-Kirche-in-ihrer-schwersten-Krise.html

[summary]

Catholics in Bavaria have been shocked by the misuse and abuse by priests in convent schools. One cannot deny Bavarians their engagement in the church. This weekend thousands faced parish council elections across the state. But their faith in the Catholic Church has been put to the test.

Almost daily last week new atrocities were made known involving sexual abuse of children and adolescents, beatings and pronography in convent schools. For the first time the Munich prosecutor moved into the Benedictine Ettal monastery and took files. These officials also found child pornography material. This was an unprecedented process.

Many former pupils told harrowing stories of sexual assault, corporal punishment, reporting massing blows, according to Thomas Pfister, the Munich-based defense lawyer who is acting as special prosecutor for the Ettal monastery. He spoke of a culture of silence.

Pfister said in the past children in care of the monks repeatedly sexually, physically and mentally abused them. The acts were so shocking that if they had been tried in secular courts, there probably would have been years of imprisonment.

For Catholics of Bavaria the world has collapsed. Alois Gluck president of the Central Committee of German Catholics, said the revelations are a great burden for the church. The repression, the looking away and lack of education were seriously failings, he said. He said truth is now coming to light.

The abuse happened not only at the Ettal monastery but attacks seem to have happened all over Bavaria. Victims reported abuse at St. Ottilie, the Maristenkolleg in Mindelheim, from Furstenfeldbruck, Burghausen and Wurzburg. The world-famous Regensburg cathedral choir was affected. What particularly angered the public was often the perpetrator, even whe sentenced as in the case at Riekofen, got suspended sentences and were moved elsewhere to do children's and youth work.

With Ettal the cover-up now appears to have an end. The pressure is now so great that even Archbishop Reinhard Marx of Munich has intervened. He is not canonically responsible for the Benedictines - they are subject to the Holy See - but Marx obtained the resignation of the abbot of Ettal, Barnabas Bogle, and Headmaster Father Maurus Krass. Both knew of abuse allegations made in 2003 and 2005 but did not report them to diocesan authorities.

Finally! This is the unanimous opinion many Catholics have of Marx's crackdown. The response from Bishop Marx was a necessary step but it took far too long for the church to have victims in mind and not just priests, said Johannes Grabmeier, the chairman of the Catholic organization "Lay Responsibility Regensburg,"

Alois Gluck also spoke strongly for a complete disclosure of all facts. The focus must be on victims and not protection of the organiation, he said. There are now significant changes within the church and he believes the church is now on the right track, he said.

Also Georg Ratzinger, brother of Pope Benedict XVI, directed the Regensburg Cathedral choir from 1964 to 1994. Boys were sexual abused. The incidents happened between 1958 and 1973.