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A new report on sexual violence against children, youth and persons under protection in the diocese of Aachen area accuses former bishops and vicars general of improper handling of abuse cases. In the report released Thursday, the Munich law firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl (WSW) raised serious allegations against former Aachen bishops Johannes Pohlschneider, Klaus Hemmerle and Heinrich Mussinghoff, as well as Vicars General Karlheinz Collas and Manfred von Holtum. Heinrich Mussinghoff and Manfred von Holtum are the only people still alive who are incriminated in the report.
The most serious accusation, according to experts, is against those responsible with a view to “transfer cases”. That is, cases in which they continued to transfer the abusers – although they had already committed assaults and in some cases had been sentenced for a long time by criminal law – and in some cases they even left them in pastoral care. At least the risk of more victims was accepted.
Those affected were perceived as a threat
The investigation covers the period from 1965 to 2019. From the archives of the diocese of Aachen, the lawyers identified a total of 81 accused clergymen, 79 of them priests and two deacons. The actions of those responsible are reconstructed through case studies. The experts complain that those responsible “had as their main objective the protection of offenders.”
“Until 2003, the victims were hardly ever noticed in the minds of those responsible for the church,” said attorney and WSW co-author Martin Pusch. If so, then “not because of the suffering they caused, but because they were seen as a threat to the diocese and the church as an institution. The resulting efforts to maintain discretion left no room for the education and care of the victims.”
“I was overwhelmed, especially by the conversations of the victims.”
The named responsible persons were also interviewed for the report. “This is not about putting these two people on the pillory,” lawyer Ulrich Wastl said at the press conference. “It’s about creating the foundation to clarify and process what happened, and that includes self-reflection on personal responsibility.” On Monday, Mussinghoff and von Holtum had already spoken at the Aachener Nachrichten. At the time there was “little experience” with abuse cases, von Holtum told the newspaper. “We first had to learn to handle it correctly.” Mussinghoff said: “I was overwhelmed, especially with the conversations of the victims.”
It is one of the first reports to examine the role of perpetrators in covering up acts of abuse. The titular bishop of Aachen, Helmut This, had commissioned the Munich office to do this; he and his vicar general Andreas Frick said they were unfamiliar with the newspaper and found out about it at the same time as the public. Attorney Wastl positively emphasized the support of the diocese. “We have never received files so fast,” he said at the press conference.
A similar report may not be released for the Archdiocese of Cologne.
The Westpfahl Spilker Wastl law firm had also prepared such an opinion on behalf of the Archdiocese of Cologne, Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki had the publication in February in an interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung Announced. Here, too, Woelki should only find out about the content at a press conference in March. The press conference was canceled on short notice, also due to the legal intervention of the people mentioned in the report, including the current Archbishop of Hamburg, Stefan Heße.
Almost two weeks ago, Woelki canceled the publication entirely and submitted an expert opinion on the expert opinion, written by two criminal law professors who accuse Westpfahl Spilker Wastl of methodological deficiencies. Now Cologne criminal law expert Björn Gercke will create a new investigation.
