-1.jpg)
The scientists at the University of Trier published their last interim report on Thursday.
In it, they examine the period from 1946 to 1966.
In the post-war years to 1951, according to the report, unusually many girls were affected by sexual assault. In addition, the researchers drew a comparison to the Nazi period, in terms of the handling of the diocese lines with accused clergy.
The researchers accounted for a total of 335 people affected from 1946 to 1966, mainly children and adolescents. They also identified 123 accused.
About half girls
The Diocese of Trier was headed by Bishop Franz Rudolf Bornewasser from 1922. In the now examined partial term from 1946 to 1951, those affected by the sexual assaults were about 50 percent female. This is unusual, the researchers wrote.
Under Bornewasser’s successor, Bishop Matthias Wehr (1951–1966), the victims were two-thirds of boys – just as in the following period. The study authors explained the number with a sexual brutalization in the first post-war years as a result of World War II.
The research team also looked at how the diocese leaders dealt with accused clergy. According to the interim report, the decision-making power was usually with the vicars general Heinrich von Meurers and Peter Weins. The administrative chiefs had dealt "conspicuously mildly" with accused. "Consequences were completely absent or consisted of transfers, in exceptional cases abroad, where they were deprived of German prosecution," according to the university.
According to the authors, a comparison between the Nazi period and the early Federal Republic shows that more consistent action would have been possible. For fear that anti-church Nazi propaganda could exploit such cases, Bishop Bornewasser ordered, for example, in 1939, the immediate accommodation of an intensive care offender in a church health and care center. "After 1945, Bornewasser relaxed the measure and the priest immediately relapsed."
The Bishop of Trier, Stephan Ackermann, explained what consequences to be drawn from the investigation in the present: "The report warns me and those who are responsible today and in the future in the diocese to establish resilient, transparent and reliable structures in the field of prevention, intervention and reappraisal, which are not dependent and influenceable on social fluctuations in dealing with these topics."
"Wrongly understood collegiality"
The Independent Commission for the Investigation of Sexual Abuse in the area of responsibility of the Diocese of Trier initiated the report. She commented: "Time and again it is clear in the study that the then diocese managers in Trier have taken too little care of those affected by sexual abuse. Their main focus was particularly on the good reputation of the Church and the preservation of general morality according to the conceptions of the time. Often perpetrators were encountered with great and also oversized clemency."
The study made it clear that the measures for prevention, which have now been introduced, must be continued consistently. "Examples of the attention of colleagues who have self-initiatively drawn the attention of the diocese leadership to sexual abuse point to the continuing importance of circumspection, courage and mindfulness, especially in the church communities. Misunderstood collegiality and excessive patience with perpetrators increases the risk of abuse and exacerbates the consequences."
Final report to be available soon
For the fourth analysis, the historians evaluated 1,574 files and held conversations with those affected as well as with contemporary witnesses. In 2022, they started the research project, which extends into 2021. The fourth interim report was the last building block. In the entire investigation period from 1946 to 2021, the researchers now count 252 accused and 782 affected persons.
A final report is due to be available at the end of November. Partial studies on the terms of the bishops Bernhard Stein (1967–1981), Hermann Josef Spital (1981–2001) and Reinhard Marx (2001–2008) and Stephan Ackermann (since 2009) have already been published.