Bishop Bertram Meier of Augsburg has announced the establishment of an advisory council for victims to deal with sexual abuse in his diocese. In an interview with the "Augsburger Allgemeine" he asked interested parties to contact the diocese.
The bishop did not rule out an external study to examine responsibilities for his diocese. But he has no concrete plans for this yet, he said. At the same time, Meier expressed skepticism: "We will not come out of the abuse scandal in a slalom of more and more new studies. And I'm afraid we'll also find at some point that we can't illuminate everything in detail anymore."
He added that the past should not be kept quiet, but that prevention must certainly be given even greater attention in the future. This is especially true for the selection and formation of priests, the bishop said.
Bishop Meier criticizes crosses on Corona demos
Meier also criticized the use of crosses at Corona demonstrations criticized. "This is not only an instrumentalization of faith, this is a bending of the religious," Meier told the "Augsburger Allgemeine" (Monday). Churches and Christians must distance themselves from this.
Meier said it reminded him of "the Islamophobic and nationalist Pegida movement.". Also there "in the sign of the cross" dull slogans had sounded. "Lateral thinking sounds good, but lateral thinking must not lead us to relativize the safety and physical integrity of our fellow citizens."
"This is dangerous"
"Fangslos" expressed the bishop about the fact that at such demonstrations also Jew stars were to be seen, whereby protesters compared themselves with the persecuted in the Nazi era. "We must not allow such symbols to be abused in these contexts and eventually become acceptable. This is dangerous," said Meier.
The bishop added that he definitely sees the danger of different forces drifting apart, also in the Catholic Church. Christmas is a chance to become essential in this regard, he said. "God wants the world and the Church to become more human."