‘We owe it to these people that we don’t sugarcoat or relativise anything and don’t obscure any uncomfortable insight,’ said Bishop Georg Bätzing. ‘This must be the measure of our church – in Germany, in Rome and everywhere in the world.’
Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg challenged Pope Leo to recognise the “systemic” causes of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.
Those who want to prevent abuse must not only call perpetrators to account but must change structures that have allowed crimes and cover-ups, said Bätzing, the former president of the German Bishops’ Conference (DBK).
During his flight back to Rome after his apostolic journey to France in September, the Pope told reporters that while there were specific organisations within the Church that had abused the system, “abuse [is] primarily a human problem”.
Writing on Limburg’s diocesan website last week, Bätzing called Leo’s comments – prompted by reports from his meeting with abuse survivors in Lourdes – “highly problematic”.
Abuse happens outside the Church too but what matters is to recognise the particular conditions within the Church that favour such crimes, said Bätzing, specifically “clericalism, asymmetric power structures, the sacral exaltation of priestly authority and a culture that has placed the reputation of the Church above the protection of those affected”.
He said that while Pope Leo had named the Church’s responsibility and the damage done to faith by abuse, it remained open whether Church structures as such were recognised as causes.
“We owe it to these people that we don’t sugarcoat or relativise anything and don’t obscure any uncomfortable insight,” he continued, insisting that those who want to prevent abuse effectively must be prepared to change more than the behaviour of individuals.
“This must be the measure of our Church – in Germany, in Rome and everywhere in the world,” said Bätzing, calling for transparency, accountability and control at all levels of ecclesial responsibility.
In Bonn last weekend, at the annual conference of the reform movement “We Are Church” – which this month marks 30 years since its foundation – its vice-president Claudia Lücking-Michel said that Pope Leo had played down the subject of abuse by speaking of “individual cases”.
She said reforms in the Church had ground to a halt after Rome’s silence in response to advances from Germany, particularly regarding the statutes of the synodal conference, though she suggested the dialogue about reforms may be taken forward under a different name.
Without a synodal body, this would depend on the joint conference of the DBK and the Central Committee of German Lay Catholics (ZDK), Lücking-Michel said.
Founded in 1976, the conference of 10 bishops and 10 ZDK members held its hundredth meeting in Bonn on 5 November. Its focus is not exclusively on “intra-church matters” but on social and political issues.
“Currently I am very worried about the escalation of violence among young people. What is it that holds our society together? Where can we connect with those who feel left behind?” said the DBK president Bishop Heiner Wilmer of Münster.
Bishop Wilmer and the ZDK President Irme-Stetter-Karp also expressed hope that Rome would soon respond regarding the synodal conference.
The Joint Conference had played an important part in the development of this “long-term project”, Wilmer said: “We want a Church where we can further develop the commonality that has been practised and appreciated in recent years in a synodal conference.”