Leon J. Podles :: DIALOGUE

Three quotes about clerical sexual abuse and its causes:
 
In the sold mass of so-called “regrettable individual lapses,” in the over-tolerant attitude of clerical superiors, and in the lying propaganda of this international body under the guidance of Roman or Vatican laws, we perceive symptoms of a disease leading to the complete internal decay of an [...]

[Read more →]

 Supi, celibacy is going to disappear,and you can marry me - or?
 
German Catholics have long manifested a discontent with clerical celibacy. One of Luther’s first acts was to abolish clerical celibacy; Germans currently criticize Zwangszölibat, compulsory celibacy, forced celibacy. As Cardinal Brandmüller points out, the term Zwangszölibat misrepresents the discipline; no one is forced to be celibate.
 
Now [...]

[Read more →]

Child Abuser and TAZ Founder Dietrich Willier AKA Didi
Americans are a provincial lot, and the German language is Greek to them. Pope Benedict rightly pointed out that in the 1970s pedophilia was considered progressive.   I specifically pointed out that the co-president of the Green Party in Germany has written in his memoirs he had had [...]

[Read more →]

As Rick noted in his comment, the German article on sexual abuse needs some clarification.
 
It did not specify whether the previous research that showed that in general sexual abuse victims were 25% male and 75% female was done in Germany or world-wide. I presume it was done in Germany. In the United States the percentage [...]

[Read more →]

In March 2010 the head of a Jesuit school in Germany had begun receiving allegations of sexual abuse by Jesuit teachers in the school. He contacted alumni about it, and received numerous allegations of abuse by priests
 
In response to this situation, the German bishops set up a hotline (telephone and e-mail) in Trier. The first [...]

[Read more →]

The Young Daniel Cohn-Bendit

Der Spiegel is often accused of being anti-clerical. The Catholic sexual abuse scandal in Germany has given anti-clericals a vast amount of material to work with. But Der Spiegel is also willing to tell the truth about corruption in the liberal icons of society, in this case the revolutionaries of 1968 and [...]

[Read more →]

In 2000 I organized a trip to Germany for my sons’ scout troop. I had attended conferences in Eichstätt for several years and knew the area, so we spent most of our time there.
 
Ever since Anglo-Saxon missionaries came to convert their pagan brethren, the prince-bishops of Eichstätt have enjoyed a long run of good taste [...]

[Read more →]

I earlier speculated that the seemingly lesser number of victims in Germany may have been the result of prosecutions in the 1930s. It looks like David Clohessy was correct: that was an illusion. The Church just opened a counseling hot line. Der Standard reports

Am ersten Tag versuchten 4460 Anrufer durchzukommen, nur 162 hatten Erfolg. [...]

[Read more →]

The tragedy of sexual abuse is unrolling in Germany like a Greek drama, and Nemesis is in the wings awaiting her cue.
The Austrian dramatist Felix Mitterer wrote a two-man drama “Die Beichte” (“The Confession’) which recently opened in Regensburg, although it was scheduled over twelve months ago. The timing is eerie. NBC reports:

The [...]

[Read more →]

The inimitable Bishop Gerhard Mueller of Regensburg has opened his episcopal mouth and put a red-slippered foot into it. His attitude to sexual abuse and his general humaneness can be studied by looking at my case study of an abuser in his diocese:  Peter Kramer. 
 
Now he has decided the Freemasons are to blame for all [...]

[Read more →]

Ratzinger’s action or inaction led to a child being molested.
 
Sometimes before 1980 the Rev. Peter Hullermann plied a boy with alcohol and then molested him. The parents went to the diocese, who told them not to go to the police, that the case would be handled inside the Church, and that Hullermann would never work [...]

[Read more →]

 For some reason I do not understand, German newspapers will not print the names of convicted  criminals. However, the Italian press is more like the American. 
The abuser identified only as Father “H” in the German press has been identified as Peter Hullermann by La Stampa. He is still a priest in Bad Tölz in Germany. 
He [...]

[Read more →]

Abuse Tracker has chronicled the revelations of sexual abuse by clerics in Germany. It is a story of abuse and cover-ups all too familiar to those who have followed similar revelations in the United States and Ireland. While in quality the abuse in Germany is as bad as in English-speaking countries, in quantity it seems [...]

[Read more →]

The files of East Germany continue to reveal secrets. The NYT reveals
The killing in 1967 of an unarmed demonstrator by a police officer in West Berlin set off a left-wing protest movement and put conservative West Germany on course to evolve into the progressive country it has become today.

Now a discovery in the archives [...]

[Read more →]

Misleading statistics indicated that Germany’s birth rate was rising because of new, generous government polices. But the statistics were misleading. Despite lavish benefits, the German birth rate continues to drop. Der Spiegel reports

On Tuesday, though, the German Federal Statistical Office released preliminary figures for all of 2008, and the news is not pretty. Rather than [...]

[Read more →]