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Merkel praises German Catholic move to alter sex abuse rules
Feb 28, 2010, 16:30 GMT
Berlin - Plans by the Catholic Church in Germany to tighten up its guidelines on sex abuse were welcomed Sunday by Chancellor Angela Merkel after a series of revelations of molestation by paedophile priests.
Most of the incidents can no longer be prosecuted because they happened so long ago, between the 1960s and the 1980s.
The church has been criticized for often allowing offenders to decide themselves whether to turn themselves in to police. It has also been accused of moving men with a paedophile past to new jobs where they again have contact with young people.
Merkel said she was pleased at an announcement by Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, chairman of the Conference of German Catholic Bishops, that the guidelines dating from 2002 will be made stricter if need be.
'Child abuse is one of the most terrible crimes and has to be investigated,' she said in an interview with ARD public television to be aired later Sunday. 'I have the impression the Catholic Church has realized this.'
Zollitsch earlier rejected calls for a round-table discussion with the government on sex abuse by priests. Advocates said during the week that 150 people have now come forward nationwide to say they were molested as children by priests.
'Sex abuse of minors is not a specific problem of the Catholic Church,' Zollitsch told the Sunday issue of the newspaper Die Welt. 'We don't need a round-table meeting especially for the Catholic Church.'
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