Church in transition: Bishops set signs in the abuse scandal

Church in transition: Bishops set signs in the abuse scandal

In Slovakia, Auxiliary Bishop Marek Forgac presented significant progress in the fight against sexual abuse in the church environment during a general assembly of the Slovak Bishops' Conference. According to kathpress.at , contact points were set up in all dioceses, which are responsible for reporting abuse cases. Responsible contact persons were named and prevention training for priests were already taking place. These training examines the legal aspects of dealing with abuse and experience reports from victims. The memorandum for cooperation in the field of protection of minors, which was signed together with the Pontifical Child Protection Commission, will support the local churches in implementing measures to support the abuse.

In addition, new figures for abuse cases were published: In 2024, eleven new cases were registered in the Slovak Catholic Church, which has been raised to 79 cases since 1990, 43 of which have been confirmed, such as katholisch.de reported. The evaluation of personnel files in various German dioceses brings alarming data to light: In the Archdiocese of Bamberg, references to sexual abuse were discovered in 41 files, and 88 victims are affected, including many altar servers and boarding school students. In extensive exams of various dioceses, a total of several hundred affected people were found, and significant sums were paid to compensate for the victims.