Leon J. Podles :: DIALOGUE

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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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. [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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 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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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Allan Carlson has emphasized that a government can’t buy a higher birthrate. Generous family allowances may encourage couples to have their children earlier in life, but the ultimate birthrate is not affected.

This seems to have happened in Germany. The German government is concerned about the abysmal birthrate in Germany and increased family allowances. Der Spiegel [...]

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German police tore down an Israeli flag because it offended Moslem protestors. When will Germans start arresting Jews and ah, “disposing” of them so that Moslems won’t tear Germany apart? Der Spiegel reports: 

Police in the western German city of Duisburg have admitted they removed flags a student had hung in his apartment in support of [...]

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No new churches are being built in Europe, and many are being secularized, as Deutsche Welle points out. The Elias Church, in Berlin

 
is now a children’s museum.
 
But Moslems go to mosque, and they are claiming their place in the cityscape. Here is the new mosque for Cologne: The exterior is by a German architect and [...]

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The Germans are having to face the consequences of their failure to have children. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports that massive numbers of apartemts have to be demolished. There are now 82 million people living in Germany; by 2050 there will be only 70 million. Even by 2020 there will be 350,000 fewer households, and [...]

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The new head of the German Bishop’s conference, Bishop Zollitsch, has raised a minor fuss in Germany by his comments on celibacy. According to Der Spiegel
Der Freiburger Erzbischof und neugewählte Vorsitzende der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz, Robert Zollitsch, spricht sich “gegen Denkverbote” beim Thema Zölibat aus. Im Gespräch mit dem SPIEGEL sagt der 69-Jährige, die Verbindung zwischen [...]

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