Symbol image: Abuse victim © KNA
In the discussion about the abuse of several hundred Regensburg Cathedral Priests, the Catholic pastoral theologian Wolfgang Beck spoke out. The case shows that the church has a structural problem, he said.
Catholic pastoral theologian Wolfgang Beck calls for independent bodies to investigate church structures that promote abuse. "There are structures in the Catholic Church that favor such suffering and the protection of perpetrators," Beck said in the "Wort zum Sonntag" on ARD television, referring to the mass physical and sexual abuse at the Regensburg Cathedral Boys' Choir and in other church institutions.
"Such a mixture can probably only be dried up" with independent bodies that would examine all official structures, said Beck, who was a pastor in Hanover until 2015 and now teaches at the Sankt Georgen Theological College in Frankfurt and at the seminary in Hildesheim.
Public must exert prere
This requires the willingness of the bishops to "sustainably illuminate the structures of clerical power and ecclesiastical intransparency," Beck said, and called on the "critical public, which is often perceived as disruptive," to keep demanding this: "Help to ensure that this prere does not abate!"
Among the structures criticized, the theologian, who was born in 1974, counts "the great lack of transparency in decision-making processes and in the allocation of offices," the "abundance of power of bishops and high clerics without effective neutral control," "repression and mendacity" in dealing with sexuality, and the "theological talk of a holy church with a detached understanding of culture and liturgy.".
Final report in the case of the Domspatzen
On Tuesday, the lawyer Ulrich Weber, commissioned by the diocese of Regensburg, had presented the final report of a two-year investigation. This shows that at the Regensburger Domspatzen pupils were beaten and sexually abused for decades.
About 500 singers were victims of physical violence, 67 were affected by sexual violence.