Specifically, the spokesman for the Eckiger Tisch initiative, Matthias Katsch, proposed the further development of the church recognition procedure in Berlin on Tuesday to a compensation fund independent of the church.
In January 2010 numerous cases of abuse became public at the Canisius College in Berlin.
This subsequently triggered a nationwide abuse scandal in numerous church, but also other institutions.
Since then, the amount of compensation or recognition for the victims has been discussed again and again.
Representative for Foundation
The Federal Government's Representative for Abuse, Kerstin Claus, had recently spoke out in favour of compensation for the victims of abuse.
This could then specifically supported those affected - whether they were abused in the Catholic Church or, for example, by family members.
In addition, such a foundation makes a culture of social recognition and remembrance possible.
The Eckiger table initiative, on the other hand, calls for a compensation fund specifically for victims of abuse in the Catholic Church. Those affected from Jesuit schools have joined forces in the Eckiger table initiative.
Church reaction to the scandal
The Catholic Church had commissioned a study on abuse in its ranks as a result of the disclosure of the cases at the Berlin Canisius College and published it in 2018.
Together with the then abuse officer of the Federal Government, Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig, the then abuse officer of the German Bishops' Conference, Bishop Stephan Ackermann, signed a joint declaration in 2020 to deal with abuse.
Payments have also been made to recognise the suffering suffering. In recent years, those affected of abuse in the Catholic Church have received an average of 22,150 euros over the Independent Commission for processing. In about 1.3 percent of cases, those affected received more than 100,000 euros.
Recently, there have been several civil trials in which abuse victims accused the church of compensation for compensation.
In June 2023, the Cologne district court had decided in a first such complaint that the Archdiocese of Cologne had to pay 300,000 euros to a person concerned. After the landmark judgment, further similar complaints followed nationwide.
In some cases, the dioceses made use of the possibility of suspending the periods of limitation in compensation proceedings.
"If the Bishops really want the amount of benefits to be guided by what judges civil courts, they will have to waive the instrument of objection to the statute of limitations in the future, which has so far prevented further decisions in the favour of those affected," Katsch said.
The cornering table advocates a temporary suspension of the limitation period in case of compensation trials. This is critical of the commissioner Claus, since experience has shown that only a few people affected could provide proof of suspension.
Thanks for the Initiative
The Jesuit Father Klaus Mertes, the former rector of the Canisius College, who had turned to three former students of the 2010 grammar school with their experiences of abuse, paid tribute to the former students on Tuesday for their contribution to the reappraisal of sexual abuse in the context of the Catholic Church.
"Without them, I would not have managed to continue to proceed in the processing. That's why I'm grateful to you to this day."
Meanwhile, the Mannheim psychiatrist Harald Dreßing spoke out in favour of a dark field study that investigates cases of abuse in both the Catholic and the Protestant church. Dreßing had worked on both studies.
In WDR 5, he stressed that the two studies were not comparable because the investigation could be used for cases in the Catholic Church.