Sunday, April 17, 2011

Church child abuse scandal hits Germany

New revelations have exposed thousands of child abuse cases in church-run orphanages in Germany, facing the country's ecclesial society with a serious challenge.

Reports posted on the website for Germany's ARD broadcaster say the incidents go back to the years between 1949 and 1975, IRNA reported.

The repots explain how thousands of children sent to orphanages run by the country's Catholic and Protestant churches were both physically and mentally harassed.

Following World War II, post war Germany was overrun by the Russian and US Alliance forces and the impoverished German families, who barely afforded a living, had to let the church look after these children.

A university professor says some 360,000 children were kept up to a three-year period in these orphanage centers. The number of these centers stood at 333 in 1967.

The revelation follows on the heels of another scandal which rocked Germany's Catholic Church last year, after it was revealed students in schools run by the religious body were sexually abused.

Since early 2010 and like many other countries, Germany has been hit by revelations that hundreds of children were physically and sexually abused in institutions that were predominantly run by the Roman Catholic Church.

The Church has said it failed to properly investigate claims of abuse and that in some cases there was a cover-up, with pedophile priests simply moved elsewhere instead of being disciplined and reported to the police.

The Church has also faced accusations of deliberately delaying reparations for victims, most of whom suffered their abuse too long ago for criminal charges to be brought.