Assaults

Fr. Klaus Mertes, S.J.

One victims' group, Eckiger Tisch (Square Table), said a sliding scale ranging between 20,000 and 120,000 euros based on the severity of the case, or a one-off payment of 54,000 euros would be more suitable. But Catholic leaders here have rejected the notion of a sliding scale, a path taken notably by the Church in Austria. The onslaught of revelations began in January when it emerged that priests at Canisius, an elite Jesuit school in Berlin, committed dozens of sexual assaults on pupils in the 1970s and 1980s. "Apologies are not enough. We need a symbolic gesture that recognises the suffering," school rector Klaus Mertes told AFP this week, when asked about the issue of compensation for victims.

Link (here)

Jesuit Director Of Berlin Canisius College In The Center Of Abuse Scandel In Germany Criticizes The Holy Father

Translated from the original German with Google translate Fr. Klaus Mertes, S.J. The non-controversial within the church Jesuit Klaus Mertes gets in a few days in the Archdiocese of Vienna as part of the event "Acts 2010" an opportunity to perform and may Keynote presentation on "But you shall receive the Holy Spirit" force hold one. Father Mertes had in recent months back to strange statements provided medially. So he said to Pope Benedict in an interview: "I have great respect for Benedict XVI." Because he question of abuse not afraid of the truth has been in love. I wish him that he criticized the church even more can discover the church. " Then the Jesuit claimed that the Pope "hard of hearing it," is that God by the "secular world" to the Church talk. End of January 2010, he had arranged with statements on homosexuality for attention. In connection with the abuse scandal at its own Berlin Canisius College, which was the current abuse scandal in the church to roll, had Mertes criticized the way the Catholic Church and homosexuality, and then said: "The church suffers from homophobia homosexuality is concealed clerics.. with this tendency are not sure whether they are accepted by an honest dealing with their s@x life. " Mertes is also very critical to the establishment of the Working Group Committed Catholics in the Union "Arbeitskreis Engagierter Katholiken". It was incomprehensible to him how a Catholic in the CDU, "the Catholic" in sectarian political and public anger Sharpening ever could, Mertes wrote in an article for the Berliner Tagesspiegel. His opinion does not correspond to the spirit of C in the CDU, the journalist and rector of the Jesuit Gymnasium Berlin Canisius College. The Jesuit priest is a son of the CDU politician and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Alois Mertes (1921-1985). The meeting will be held on 14 to 16 October in St. Stephen's place.          Link (here) to KathNet. Hat Tip to Tancred (here)

More Payments

A group of victims who were s@xually abused by members of the Catholic Jesuit Order said on Monday they would seek compensation payments of more than 80,000 euros ( $105,000) for each of the 205 victims.

Link (here) to Deutsche Welle

46

In May, an investigation found that at least 205 former students claimed to have been sexually or otherwise abused in Jesuit schools in Germany, and 46 Jesuits and non-clerical staff at the schools have been accused of abuse or of knowing of such crimes without acting.

Link (here)

Symbolic Compensation

A spokesman for Germany's Jesuits says they plan to pay the victims of sexual abuse in the order's schools a "symbolic compensation" of at least €5,000 ($6,500). Jesuit spokesman Thomas Busch said Thursday the order has not yet made a final decision on the amount that will be offered to about 200 victims who were abused decades ago.

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Link (here) to the full story

A German Jesuit Priest Called Father Bertram

"From 1957 to 1990, I beat several hundred children and adolescents of both sexes on their exposed buttocks, in nearly painless symbolic acts of punishment," he wrote in a report in 1991. 

Link (here) to a detailed article at Cleveland.com
Watch a video news account from Rome Reports (here)

The Lawyers And The German Jesuit Abuse Scandal

For the first time since news of the abuse scandal at the Bonn Jesuit boarding Aloisiuskolleg came together on weekends in winter, the king called "Square Table" for the Investigation of abuse cases. Also present was Ursula Raue, Berlin Missbrauchsbeauftragte the Jesuits.

Link (here) to a lengthy article in German at German Radio, use Google translate.

Lawsuit Filed: Missouri Province Jesuit Banned From Fordham

The woman said the sexual assault occurred when she was a student at Holy Cross spending a semester studying abroad in Rome. During a weekend retreat, she said, Fr. Daniel C. O’Connell, S.J. insisted on getting her a drink. Because she passed out, she said, she believes it was drugged. “I woke up on his bed as he was getting dressed,” she said.

As part of the 2003 settlement with the Missouri Province, the woman received a letter from its leader, the Rev. Frank Reale, saying that Father O’Connell had been “restricted from participating in public priestly ministry.”

“I do find credible your allegation of abusive behavior,” he wrote. “I deeply regret your suffering. My response is grounded on the hope that any future abuse can be prevented and that significant healing can continue to occur in your own life.”

The new lawsuit charges breach of contract and includes a number of related charges; it seeks just under $1 million in damages. (The suit also accuses Father O’Connell of harassing the woman over the Internet using a fake name, though neither the woman nor her lawyer would provide specific details.)

Father O’Connell apparently made at least two appearances at Fordham, one in 2008 and one in 2006 as the headliner at a symposium on scientific psychology versus religious faith, according to documents provided by the woman’s lawyer.

Literature for the symposium described Father O’Connell as “one of the premier psycholinguists in the U.S.A. and abroad.”

The woman wrote to the Rev. Joseph M. McShane, Fordham’s president, who canceled another scheduled appearance by Father O’Connell, and informed the Missouri Province that he was not to return to the campus, said Bob Howe, a Fordham spokesman. “Father McShane apologized to the woman,” Mr. Howe said, “and he assured her that Father O’Connell would never speak at or appear at any Fordham event.” 

Link (here) to the full New York Times article

Weed Out Those With Any Serious Psychological Problems

Compare this to what I faced when I entered the Jesuit Order in 1988: a battery of psychological tests (which culminated in a lengthy psychological evaluation to the Jesuits), six face-to-face interviews, an eight-day retreat, as well as having to submit a comprehensive autobiography, recommendations from six friends and co-workers, a physician's examination, and so on. Such procedures today -- and especially those put in place after 2002 -- help to begin to weed out those with any serious psychological problems, such as pedophilia. Tragically, they were not in place many decades ago, in this country or abroad. 

Link (here) to an article by Fr. James Martin, S.J. it appears in the Huffington Post.

Some Berlin Jesuit Fallout

Zollitsch, who leads the second-largest diocese in Germany, told the radio station Südwestrundfunk that he planned to inform the Pope Benedict XVI of the scandal in March. "Most of these cases are from 25 or 30 years ago," Zollitsch said. "At that time people believed that if the perpetrators admitted their injustices, they wouldn't do it anymore. It was naive to believe that." Last week the Church announced it would set up a telephone hotline for victims who had suffered sexual abuse at the hands of church staff and would create a national office to review a rash of recent claims. Two priests have already resigned for failing to report sexual abuse accusations. 

Link (here)

 

"Heinus"

“The abuse is of particular weight when it comes to the Church, because children and youth give a special trust to the priests,” Archbishop Robert Zollitsch said ahead of the DBK’s conference in Freiburg, calling the crimes “heinous.”

The abuse scandal that was uncovered at Berlin’s prestigious Canisius school last month continues to grow, with around 50 former students claiming they were sexually abused in the 1970s and 1980s. But lawyers for victims have said more than 115 people across the country have since come forward with allegations of abuse by up to 12 different priests and teachers at other Catholic institutions too.

During the conference the bishops will discuss their “guidelines for dealing with sexual abuse of children by clergy” and “discuss possible changes,” Zollitsch said. Church leaders will also discuss preventative measures, he said.

“Our future priests must possess the necessary maturity and suitability - also regarding sexual matters - for their posts,” Zollitsch said. “Furthermore we want to discuss how we can in this difficult situation restore the reputation of Catholic schools.”

Last week Augsburg Bishop Walter Mixa faced heavy criticism for claiming the sexual revolution was partially to blame for the widespread abuse of children at German Catholic schools.

Link (here) to the full story from the German focused news site The Local

Patterns

The lawsuits against the Jesuits for abuse in Alaska were not covered nationally in the media. Then, Germany erupted with stories of pervasive abuse in Jesuit-run schools.

The sex-abuse victims are still coming forward,

but one rector was recently quoted as saying that he expected that, in the end, they would identify over 100 victims of a single Jesuit perpetrator. And abuse is not limited to this one perpetrator; once again, it is pervasive. In other words, the situation in Germany is a mirror image of that depicted in the first Irish report and of the Australian experience with church-run residential schools.

There is an undeniable pattern and web of connections,

even for those who would do all that they can to deny child sex abuse and deny wrongdoing by the Roman Catholic Church. That pattern has led to suffering that is beyond human imagination.

Link (here) to the full editorial piece, The Piece of the Puzzle Are Falling into Place by Marci Hamilton (pictured) at Findlaw.

Manfred T

Manfred T.* (45) is today a respectable and upstanding man. He was a pupil at the Canisius Kolleg Jesuit school between 1975 and 1882, and Wolfgang S. was his form tutor. He told Berlin newspaper ‘BZ’ that Wolfgang S. wore sport clothes, in contrast to the other teachers who wore gowns and that he was a nice person and a good teacher.

Link (here) to the full interview with Manfred T. one of the children abused at Canisius Kolleg in Berlin in the German language publication The Bild

Tip Of The Iceberg

Bernhard Ehlert, head of a leading Catholic Third World charity. He resigned on Wednesday after he admitted abusing boys early in his career at the school.

Cardinal Georg Sterzinsky, (pictured) archbishop of Berlin, has weighed into the scandal, calling an emergency meeting on Tuesday of all Catholic school heads in the archdiocese. Already Fr Mertes of Canisius College is convinced he has gone public with just “the tip of the iceberg”.

Link (here) to the full article in the Irish Times

Abuse Victim First Stabbed German Jesuit Then Commited Suicide

IT IS 23 YEARS since Adam threw himself in front of a train. His family never knew why. Nor did they know until this week that, months before his death, the 24-year-old had tracked down Fr Peter, a former teacher who had abused him at Berlin’s elite Canisius College.

Adam found the Jesuit priest in the western city of Hildesheim in 1986, confronted him with a knife and stabbed him several times in the chest before fleeing. The priest was seriously injured and was rushed to hospital for treatment, but never pressed charges.

“It seems like others knew earlier what went on in Canisius College, but only now does it seem to concern us,” said Adam’s mother this week to German television. “Abuse seems to be everywhere.”

Link (here) to the full article in the Irish Times.

Number Three

The Jesuit order of Germany says a third priest was involved in the serial sexual abuse of students at one of the country’s most prestigious high schools.

In a statement posted on the Jesuits’ Web site late Tuesday the order wrote that the priest, who was not identified by name, also taught at Berlin’s private Catholic Canisius Kolleg in the 1970s and 1980s. Three of his victims had contacted the order’s independent counsellor for sexual abuse victims.

Link (here) to the full article.

“I’m Worried That A Storm Is Going To Break Out Now,”

Father Stefan Dartmann, the head of Germany’s Jesuit order, said.

Dartmann said he knew of 25 former pupils who said they had been abused at presitgious Jesuit schools between 1975 and 1984 — 20 at the Canisius Kolleg in Berlin, 3 at the Hamburger St. Ansgar Schule in Hamburg and 2 at the Kolleg St. Blasien in St. Blasien in the Black Forest.

German media reported the first cases last week but

the number of alleged victims has been growing and the possibility of a wider scandal looms. “I’m worried that a storm is going to break out now,”

said the former director of Kolleg St. Blasien, Father Hans Joachim Martin.

Any scandal like this is big news, but it is even bigger in Germany because, in marked contrast to other countries like the United States and Ireland, little abuse is known to have taken place in Germany’s Roman Catholic Church.

Dartmann, who said the reports of abuse had been received by Germany’s Jesuit order as early as 1981, was quoted as saying he was ashamed nothing had been done.

He admitted that Father Klaus Mertes, director of the Canisius Kolleg, had first informed him about the problem in 2006.

“At the time, the victims asked for complete discretion,” he said in a statement. “Now that some victims have come forward, an investigation to uncover those cases of abuse fully is now possible and necessary.” He also apologised that those responsible at the time did not react in the way that was required.

Link (here) to the full article.

Photo of Sankt Ansgar Schule in Hamburg

The Former German Jesuits Have Been Named In The Jesuit Pedophile Scandel In Germany

Germany's top Jesuit apologized Monday for serial sexual abuse apparently committed by two priests at one of the country's most prestigious high schools, saying there was evidence of it for years but Jesuit officials did not "react the way it would have been necessary."

At least 20 students were sexually abused by the two priests at Berlin's private Catholic Canisius Kolleg in the 1970s and 1980s, the school's director Father Klaus Mertes said at a joint press conference with Father Stefan Dartmann, the head of the Jesuit order of Germany, on Monday evening at Canisius Kolleg.

That is much higher than the initial seven sexual abuse cases attributed to the two priests, Fathers Peter Riedel and Wolfgang Stab, that Mertes had reported last month.

Link (here) to the full article

Photo is of Fr. Stefan Dartmann, S.J. the German provincial