Catholic Church clashes with German government over abuse (Roundup)

Feb 24, 2010, 15:04 GMT

Freiburg, Germany - A row between the German government and the country's Catholic church escalated Wednesday after a minister accused the church of not reporting molesting priests to the police.

Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger had claimed in a radio interview that Catholic leaders 'have not shown an active interest in a truly uninhibited and thorough investigation.'

That led to the country's most senior archbishop phoning Chancellor Angela Merkel to complain to her about the minister. He demanded a retraction of the minister's 'inaccurate' remarks.

Merkel's spokesman, Ulrich Wilhelm, told reporters the chancellor 'does not doubt the commitment of the church to investigate sexual abuse of children by priests and prevent it recurring.'

But the minister was unrepentant. She said the church should set up a round table meeting with the police to investigate past cases.

Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger later said she would meet with Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg, the chairman of the Conference of German Catholic Bishops, to discuss his complaint.

The row centres on revelations that some church school teachers had abused pupils in more than 100 cases between the 1960s and 1980s.

Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, who belongs to the junior party in the Merkel coalition, the Free Democrats, had called Monday on church leaders to decide 'to cooperate constructively with the crime- fighting authorities, provide evidence and help uncover this.'

She said the church had no legal power to decide not to report cases of child rape to the police.

The church was apparently upset because the recent cases did not involve rape, but allegations that teachers had groped or spanked semi-naked pupils. In other cases, orphanages were accused of forcing children to eat food, even after they had gagged it up.

Most of the cases are so old that it is not legally possible to prosecute them.

Church official guidelines say a bishop should report complaints to police where necessary.

On Tuesday, Zollitsch gave her a 24-hour deadline to withdraw what he called 'the gravest attack' for decades on the church by a government minister. His spokesman said Wednesday the archbishop had nothing more to say.

The minister's spokesman icily said it was 'not done' to give an ultimatum to a government minister.

The church traditionally has close ties with the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Merkel's party, but it has also been upset at the chancellor, who is a Lutheran, for publicly criticizing Pope Benedict XVI.

A prosecutor in the western city of Bonn meanwhile said he was investigating an allegation against a priest, 82, who was alleged to have sexually abused a current pupil at a Jesuit school in the city in 2005.