Europe News

Abuse cases surface in Austrian Catholic Church

Mar 9, 2010, 10:22 GMT

Vienna - Cases of sexual and physical abuse by Catholic clergymen surfaced in Austria on Tuesday, as a boarding school in the Mehrerau abbey confirmed anonymous accusations and a victim spoke out in Salzburg.

The revelations came after a series of similar cases in Germany came to light involving Catholic institutions and a non- denominational boarding school.

In Mehrerau in western Austria, one priest had sexually abused a male pupil at the boarding school in the 1980s, Abbot Anselm van der Linde alleged in an interview published on Tuesday.

Another Mehrerau priest sexually abused a young male drug addict in the town of Innsbruck in 2001 while he was studying there, the head of the abbey told the regional daily Vorarlberger Nachrichten.

In addition, pupils were beaten by their Catholic educators, a practice common through the mid-1980s.

'There is no question that there were educational measures which would be unthinkable today,' the daily quoted the abbot, who took on his post last year.

At the Sankt Peter monastery in Salzburg, Arch-abbot Bruno Becker admitted to having molested a boy over 40 years ago, when he was still an aspirant priest, and offered his resignation.

His victim told radio Oe1 on Tuesday that he had also been abused by two other monks at Saint Peter's.

In the Mehrerau cases, one alleged perpetrator was transferred to another province after the incident in the 80s, while the other priest was convicted in court.