The intervention of the affected advisory council did not suggest that the priest is not being appointed in the pastoral care of a congregation in the Kronach district.
This was linked by the affected advisory board. "The diocese instructions have been discussing the matter for weeks and, regardless of the advisory advisory board, made the decision against the deployment of Father S.", said a spokesman for the Archdiocese of the Catholic News Agency (KNA) on Monday evening.
After it became known that the priest was to be used again pastorally, there had been a wealth of reactions and feedback from a relatively short time from very different sides to the planned change, which utterly expressed large concerns.
"For this reason, Archbishop Herwig Gössl, in charge of the subject, has recommended that Father S. convince you to refrain from the head service in the Eucharist in the home region. This is happening in consideration of the different positions and with the aim of not further deepening the existing tensions in the pastoral communities, in the region and in the general public."
It has therefore remained with the previous regulation that the priest would refuse to carry out pastoral activities.
In principle, the order dates to the applicable ecclesiastical guidelines and legal regulations. In the case of accused priests, whose alleged acts have already been decades ago and for which there is no condemnation or canonical suspension, the situation was to be assessed and classified differently from case on a case, so that generally valid statements were difficult.
"In such a weighing process, the public opinion and votes of local individuals can also play a decisive role, as this cause clearly shows," the speaker continued.
Impunity and positive forecast made possible use
According to the Archdiocese, the priest informed the diocese leadership of a "relationship with a youth" in 1994. His ministry in the then parish was ended. The public prosecutor's office did not initiate an investigation on the basis of statute of limitations. There was no conviction under church or state law.
After psychotherapeutic support with a positive prognosis and further expert report, the pastor had again been appointed in the parish pastoral care and remained in service until his retirement in 2020.
In 2022, the then Archbishop Ludwig Schick had asked the priest not to hold any priestly service after he had helped to retire at his home in the local pastoral care.
"However, this soon led to the expression of concerns from different sides – not only with regard to the earlier events, but also because the general issue of abuse triggered polyphonic, controversial, supraregional and regional discussions and at the same time also a special case in the region from the past was at the centre of public perception."