The Munich social psychologist Heiner Keupp has accused the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising of having done too little in the past to deal with abuse. He pleads for an independent processing commission.
Keupp is also skeptical about the new contract awarded in February to the Munich law firm "Westpfahl, Spilker, Wastl", which is to prepare an extended expert opinion on cases of sexual abuse and physical violence in the archdiocese, building on the 2010 report, as he said in response to a question from the Catholic News Agency (KNA) on Thursday. It would be a progress only if all results were put on the table.
Mandatory inclusion of affected persons
At the same time, they would have to be investigated by an independent commission in the sense of the agreements of the German Bishops' Conference and the Independent Commissioner for Child Sexual Abuse of the Federal Government. Central thereby the obligatory inclusion of concerning is.
The report is to include not only the period from 1945 to 2010, but also the years up to 2019. As Vicar General Christoph Klingan announced, it is primarily a matter of showing by means of files, "that possibly omissions of individual responsible persons are obvious". This could affect all those responsible in this period – "without distinction".
The background to Keupp's remarks is a report in the "Suddeutsche Zeitung" on Wednesday. In it, Munich Auxiliary Bishop Engelbert Siebler, who died in 2018, is accused of abusing students at a church boarding school in Upper Bavaria. An ex-student also accused him of sexual abuse. Siebler was director of the Sankt Michael seminary in Traunstein from 1976 to 1985. In this time the deeds should have happened. – Siebler is the highest-ranking Catholic clergyman in Bavaria against whom an alleged victim has made such an accusation. The Traunstein boarding school is run by the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising.
"Strange physical advances"
A spokesman for the archdiocese confirmed to the CBA that the alleged victim had approached the archdiocese's abuse commissioner in 2016 with allegations of physical and psychological violence against Siebler. According to the minutes of the meeting, the man also reported "strange physical advances": "However, nothing concrete happened."Further contacts with the former student and his lawyers had taken place at his own request from autumn 2016
no longer given.
Keupp told the KNA that he had been in contact with the victims. The psychologist explained supposed inconsistencies with the fact that it takes a lot of trust work until someone is willing to address the shame-ridden area. "It was easier to first talk about the physical and psychological violence."To the "Suddeutsche", the psychologist had said that he had recognized in the reports of former seminarians from Traunstein a pattern known to him, which is also called "black pedagogy". This, he said, is understood to mean education that uses violence, intimidation and humiliation.