A report by the College of Muenster launched on Monday discovered 610 minors had been sexually abused by Catholic monks within the German diocese of Muenster, AFP reported. The precise variety of victims could possibly be 10 occasions larger, the report stated. No less than 5,700 particular person acts of sexual abuse had been dedicated by a complete of 196 clergymen, together with 183 monks.
Historian Natalie Powroznik, who was concerned within the research, stated the true variety of victims could possibly be as excessive as 5,000 to six,000, AFP reported.
The research stated that the 196 clerics who allegedly engaged in sexual abuse account for about 4 per cent of all monks within the diocese between 1945 and 2020. The report discovered that 5 per cent of the clergymen concerned had been serial offenders, accountable for greater than 10 acts every.
The research, commissioned by the diocese in western Germany and carried out over two-and-a-half years, pointed to a “huge management failure” throughout the tenures of the diocese’s bishops between 1947 and 2008, AP reported.
“The bishops and different officers within the diocesan management had been in some instances extensively within the know in regards to the abuse,” co-author Thomas Grossboelting stated.
Three in 4 victims had been boys, with the bulk being between 10 and 14 years outdated. Many of the acts had been dedicated in opposition to altar boys or at youngsters’s and youth camps.
The sexual abuse led to “appreciable psychological penalties” for the victims reaching into maturity, together with despair and suicidal ideas, with indications of tried suicide in 27 instances, the report discovered.
Muenster Bishop Felix Genn, in a press release, apologised to the abuse victims although he acknowledged that an apology “just isn’t sufficient” and vowed “additional penalties” in coping with abuse.
In 2018, a church-commissioned report concluded that no less than 3,677 folks had been abused by clergy in Germany between 1946 and 2014, AP reported.
(With inputs from businesses)
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