As part of a church service, Bishop Stefan Oster unveils the wooden figure created by the Bavarian artist Andreas Kuhnlein.
She is titled "Lichtblick" and shows a pregnant woman looking forward. At the suggestion of the Advisory Board for Concerned, the diocese had bought the work.
After the completion of the ongoing renovation work in the cathedral, this is to be permanently installed at the Marienaltar.
The idea came from the Advisory Board. It was created about three years ago, in connection with the friendship to the wood sculptor Kuhnlein from Unterwössen in the Chiemgau, explained spokesman Siegfried Lang.
Wooden sculptures in Saint Martin
The artist had created a devotional room in 2022 in his hometown in the church of St. Martin, which commemorates the suffering of several young people who had been abused in the parish area by a now deceased pastor in the 1960s.
The wooden sculptures show condemnation, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Inscriptions in the windows of the room establish a connection between the Passion of Christ and the situation of abuse victims.
Lang said the initial consultation with Bishop Oster about creating a similar memorial for the Passau Cathedral had turned out to be consistently positive. The focus of this artwork is now on sustainability.
Because: "The great danger is with these reappraisal topics, which go through the press: You hear it, you see it, and with that the topic is then also done again."
"Heart" in Munich's Liebfrauenkirche
Passau is the second diocese in Bavaria after the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, which permanently prepares a memorial against abuse in the cathedral.
In February 2025, the 60-centimeter-high work "Heart" by the Munich artist Michael Pendry was unveiled in the Munich Liebfrauenkirche.
Until Easter it stood at the main altar, meanwhile it has found its place on a stele in the crypt of the church.
The abuse study for the diocese of Passau, published last December, had found that nearly 700 children and young people have been sexually abused or physically abused by Catholic priests of the diocese since 1945.
A team of the university led by the historian Marc von Knorring had developed it on behalf of the Independent Reappraisal Commission.
However, it should be assumed that a dark number that cannot be quantified in more detail, the conclusion states.