This Saturday, the new rules for dealing with allegations of abuse will come into force in the Catholic Church. The implementation is likely to be very different. In some regions it is not even recognized that there is a problem at all.
Former Pope Benedict XVI. remembers exactly when he first began to suspect evil. On Good Friday in 1970, he said, he came to the city of Regensburg and saw a poster everywhere "that presented two completely naked people in a large format in a close embrace".
At that time, the triumph of complete sexual freedom began, the 92-year-old former pope explains in the Bavarian "Klerusblatt". "Homosexual clubs" would have formed even in seminaries. In the course of this general sexualization, the evil of abuse has then also crept into the church.
Radical enlighteners and radical brakemen
He simply ignores the fact that, according to a study by the German Bishops' Conference, Catholic clerics were already abusing boys and girls decades before Benedict's demonized '68 revolution. His essay shows that there are still two currents in the Church on the subject of abuse: On the one hand, those who want to radically enlighten and ensure as far as possible that the crimes are not repeated. And then there are the brakemen, who still take the position that there is no structural problem in the church, but only individual offenders – just as in all other parts of society.
An important date for the reformers is the 1st of January. June – this Saturday. Then, for the first time, mandatory reporting of sexual abuse cases goes into effect for the entire universal church. Pope Francis' new rules require all dioceses to set up easily accessible points of contact for reports. In addition, Francis wants to press the pace: Church procedures should no longer drag on endlessly.
What the new rules mean for Germany
In Germany, much of this has already been implemented. "The guidelines of the German Bishops' Conference largely correspond to the new papal norms," judges canon lawyer Thomas Schuller, an equally knowledgeable and critical observer of the church.
However, he warns: "Clarifications could do the German guidelines good." Because again and again it is to be observed that above all old, no longer active bishops "rather practice the culture of concealment for their serious omissions in their active service time".
Ackermann: examine pope's guidelines
The abuse commissioner of the Bishops' Conference, Stephan Ackermann from Trier, says in this regard, one will certainly examine to what extent the German guidelines still need to be adapted to the Pope's guidelines.
Victims' associations criticize Pope's new rules for not including mandatory reporting to state agencies. The guidelines of the German Bishops' Conference stipulate that if a crime is suspected, information must be passed on to the police and public prosecutor's office and, if necessary, also to the Youth Welfare Office or the school supervisory authority.
However, Bishop Ackermann qualifies: "There are cases in which it is the express will of the alleged victim that the information not be disclosed. In this case, the obligation to pass on the information may exceptionally be waived."
Vatican has world church in mind
The Vatican emphasizes time and again that the main thing is to raise awareness in all countries of the world. In many regions, church representatives still have the attitude: abuse? Which abuse?
In Catholic Poland, for example, a documentary film about pedophile priests sparked a debate as recently as mid-May. In the Middle East, in Africa, in Asian countries like India, but also on the pope's doorstep, in Italy, things are often bad when it comes to coming to terms with the past. An archbishop from Ghana said before the anti-abuse summit in February at the Vatican that the problem in Africa was "very, very, very small". The gap to countries such as Germany, Ireland or the USA is therefore quite wide.
Pope wants a "process of correction
Francis himself commented only this week in an interview on accusations that the Rome summit disappointed many people. Above all, that he sees the devil at work in pedophilia is seen by many as an escape from responsibility.
"I cannot explain the problem of pedophilia in any other way than with the spirit of evil," the pope said now on Mexican television. His policy is to initiate processes. It is a matter of opening up a "process of healing, of correction". With the catalog of rules, he has now taken another step in this process. However, an overdue.