German archbishop calls to examine Church's 'dark aspects'

[Expatica] The leader of Germany's Roman Catholic bishops said in an Easter message on Saturday that "we must examine the Church's dark aspects" and called for a new beginning amid widening child abuse scandals.

"Today particularly we must set out together and examine inconceivable events, awful crimes, the Church's dark aspects as well as our shadowy sides," Archbishop Robert Zollitsch wrote in an Easter message on his diocese website.

"The Church must not be inactive: we need a new beginning," he wrote on the site of his own archdiocese of Freiburg im Breisgau, southwest Germany.

Germany's Catholic Church has been thrown into crisis in recent weeks as dozens of people have come forward alleging they were abused as minors by priests. Most cases date back many years.

Zollitsch called already on Good Friday for the day, when Christians commemorate the crucifixion of Christ, to "mark a new departure which we so badly need".

The child abuse scandal has engulfed much of Europe and the United States with new cases emerging almost daily, drawing in the Vatican for harsh criticism over its handling of the affairs.

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