According to an independent study, the extent of sexual abuse in the Catholic diocese of Münster is significantly greater than previously known. The files of the diocese show a number of 610 victims of abuse – but the scientists put the number of unreported cases at up to 6000 cases.
The number of 610 victims of abuse is already more than a third more than was recorded in the MHG study presented by the German Bishops’ Conference in 2018, the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster (WWU) announced on Monday. Münster’s bishop Felix Genn admitted that he was partly responsible for the suffering of victims of abuse.
The five researchers at Münster University worked independently. In contrast to studies from other dioceses such as Cologne, Munich and Freising, the scientists are not lawyers but social anthropologists and historians. Study director Thomas Großbölting said that he hoped that this would give him a better view of the connections between acts of abuse. Großbölting certified that the diocese had “well supported” the study.
Historian Natalie Powroznik, who was involved in the study, said the 610 victims are just the bright field emerging from the files. From comparable cases, a dark field can be assumed that is eight to ten times larger. There are “about 5,000 to 6,000 affected girls and boys” in the diocese of Münster, the abuse had taken place across the board in the diocese, which extends from the northern Ruhr area deep into Lower Saxony.
A total of 210 priests committed at least 5,700 individual acts of sexual abuse on the 610 victims whose names were known. It is by no means just a matter of individual acts, five percent of pedophile priests are serial offenders with more than ten victims. More than 90 percent of the pedophile perpetrators got away with the criminal law scot-free.
In the main phase of the crimes – the 1960s and 1970s – there were an average of two acts of abuse by priests per week in the parishes of the Diocese of Münster. Three quarters of the victims are boys, a quarter girls, the majority between ten and 14 years old. Many deeds were committed by altar boys or at children’s and youth camps. The majority of the victims had a very close relationship with the church.
The authors of the study reported mostly massive acts of abuse with significant psychological consequences for the victims that lasted well into adulthood, including depression and suicidal thoughts. Indications of suicide attempts were found in 27 of the named abuse victims in the diocese of Münster.
Powroznik said priests have repeatedly reinterpreted the abuse as a “godly” act. Many victims would not have dared to talk about the deeds. Most of the cases only became known in 2010, when the Catholic Church’s abuse scandal became known.
Bishop Felix Genn of Münster wants to comment on the study in detail next Friday. In a first reaction he explained: “Of course I take responsibility for the mistakes I made myself in dealing with sexual abuse. I was and am part of the church system that made sexual abuse possible.”
Genn did not comment on possible personal consequences. However, Pope Francis would have to agree to a possible resignation – with Munich Cardinal Reinhard Marx and Hamburg Archbishop Stefan Hesse, Francis had rejected offers of resignation, in the case of Cologne Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, who is heavily burdened like Marx and Hesse, a decision on an offer of resignation is still pending.
The study organizers accused Genn, who has been bishop in Münster since 2009, of omissions. If an abuser has shown remorse, Genn has not always acted consistently in terms of canon law. Only recently has Munster been taking consistent action. The researchers made massive accusations against the late Bishop Reinhard Lettmann, who had repeatedly used priests in pastoral care, who were also known to be pedophiles.
