AUSTRIAN victims of maltreatment or sexual abuse by Catholic clergy are considering a class action against the Church, the daily Der Standard reported.Viennese lawyer Werner Schostal told the paper the victims had created an association "Victims against Church violence" to enable them to take legal action and demand up to 80,000 euros ($118,000) in damages per victim.
He said the sum was justified in cases of aggravated abuse over several years.
"In a first instance, we are going seek an out of court settlement. But if the Church doesn't demonstrate that it's ready to reach an agreement, or if the sums they offer are too low, we will launch a formal action," he said.
The action will be against the alleged perpetrators of the abuse but also the Church itself as being responsible for the actions of its employees, he said.
The newly created victims' association, which estimates that hundreds of people are concerned and will join their ranks, is considering action against two bishops in particular, the bishop of Eistendstadt, Paul Iby, and of Graz, Johann Weber, who is suspected of abusing nearly 20 children in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
He was suspended from his duties in early March.
According to a poll carried out this week among a representative sample of 704 people, published Saturday by Der Standard, 74 percent of Austrians believe the Church will not shed light on all paedophile cases in the news.
More than 30 percent of Catholics in this majority Catholic country has considered leaving the Church over the revelations, the paper said, even if only one percent so far has actually done so.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to us or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that we agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
SIC: HS