'Welt' Accuses Cardinal Marx of Covering up Abuse-- Archdiocese Threatens Lawsuit

Editor: as kreuz.net earlier reported, Regensburg Diocese has already sued 'Spiegel'.

A serious accusation: Cardinal Marx is said to have covered up a suspected sexual abuse, in order to use this "politically" -- The Archdiocese of Munich is taking legal steps.

Munich (kath.net) "Cardinal Marx covers suspected abuse". With this headline on late Wednesday afternoon the newspaper "Die Welt" has aroused the concern of the Archdiocese of Munich. "There was an impression that Marx himself was the one who was aware of the abuse at first. Actually, he held back the information of a suspicion of sexual abuse, in order to use it later for political reasons.", wrote the paper. It is maintained in a report that the Munich Archbishop Cardinal Reinhard Marx, according to information from "Welt Online", is suspected of allegedly covering up an abuse for over three months and through that he could allegedly permit a man exposed as a pedophile to continue working as an educator at Cloister Ettal.

The "Welt" declared that it should have been the case that the victim of the educator who had informed the Diocese at first on 5. April 2010 was brought to the attention of the abuse delegate of the Archdiocese. Supposedly this was reported three months later to the State Prosecutor of Munich. The Cloister in Ettal, where the educator was active, should have been the first to have been informed, actually.

According to information from "Welt Online" Archbishop Marx is supposed to have been personally aware of the accusations against the Ettal teacher. Corresponding guidelines of the German Bishops Conference for the handling of sexual abuse require that the abuse delegate is "immediately" informed over these events. Otherwise the suspected victim according to "Welt" is supposed to have spoken later to Marx personally.

The paper reported that there was a conflict in the background between the Archdiocese of Munich and Cloister Ettal. In February 2010 Archbishop Marx had demanded the resignation of the then Abbott and the director of the Ettal Dormitory, both of whom were later rehabilitated by the Pope. The Diocese then directed, according to "Welt", the suspicion against the Ettal Educator to after a month of inactivity in the same week in which the rehabilitation of the Ettal Abbott was made public. "Possibly, these recent negative allegations could draw a cloud over the positive media-echo for Ettal", writes Welt.

The Archdiocese of Munich and Freising has condemend the report from "Welt" as untrue. "The "Welt" is called to retract and omit the untrue and damaging information. We plan on taking legal steps to obtain retraction and omission." they said in an official statement.

From kath.net...

Vatican Rebuke for Munich Archbishop Marx: Ettal Abbot and Prior Exonerated

The Vatican exonerated the earlier Abbot of Ettal and rebukes the Diocese of Munich: Abbot Barnabas has done everything, what was required by the situation. The naming of a successor is not to happen.


Berlin/Munich (kath.net/KNA) A Vatican Investigative Commission has, says the newspapers "Die Welt" and "Muenchner Merkur", (Friday)that the resigned management of the Benedictine Cloister Ettal has been exonerated of the abuse scandal. Both papers refer to a corresponding letter of the Roman Cardinal Prefect Franc Rode, who directs for the Monks the competent section in the Vatican. As the papers report, there had been an Apostolic visitation in the Cloister, that resigned order members had made no error in their handling of the Ettal sexual and physical abuse.

Neither Abbot Barnabas Bögle nor Prior Maurus Krass would have neglected a prescribed requirement to report. The Abbot did everything, "which was required by the situation". A renewed election of both ministers from their earlier offices is not required.

The Abbot and the Prior had been accused, that they had not reported to the competent Archdiocese of Muenchen-Freising in 2005 when they became aware of a new sexual abuse. According to the information the papers have the expert opinion of the Vatican is not associated with that of the view of the Archdiocese of Munich.

The letter from Rome had been delivered by Wednesday to the Cloister of Ettal, reported "Muenchner Merkur" further. Otherwise it would have been necessary to select a name Abbot by 31 July. The Monastic Congregation has appointed this directive. From the Cloister no one has wanted till now to discuss any of the new developments. There should be a press release on Friday.

The report brings a new rebuke for the ambitious Archbishop Marx at the same time in "Die Welt". There have been for a long while already critics of the administration of the Archiepiscopal Chair. So it was already made known in March, that the resignation of Barnabas and Maurus was to take place on the ground of a false accusation.

Report from Die Welt...