OAN's Avril Elfie
6:30pm – Thursday, January 25, 2024
More than 2,220 people in Germany have been reported to have been sexually abused by church officials and members, according to a new report.
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according to An independent report has been published On Thursday, it was revealed that at least 2,225 victims had been sexually abused by 1,259 German church members or employees over the past several decades.
The data comes from an examination of records and correspondence from the German-based church and Diacony, a Lutheran Diacony relief and social services agency.
The authors emphasized that they were only able to examine disciplinary files, not the personnel files of every bishop, priest, and deacon in the church.According to their estimates, the actual number of sexual abusers may be even higher – German Press Agency D.P.A. report.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Martin Waslawik of the University of Hannover, who coordinated a study on sexual violence in German churches.
The study was funded with 3.6 million euros ($3.92 million) commissioned by an anonymous church in 2020 to investigate abuses of power. The EKD is an umbrella organization of 20 local churches representing 19.2 million Christians in Germany.
The president of the EKD, the German Council of Protestant Churches, sincerely apologized to the victims during a research presentation in Hannover.
“As an organization, we have committed countless crimes against countless people,” Hamburg Bishop Kirsten Fehrs said, adding that she was “deeply shocked” by the overall picture presented by the study. . “Since taking up this matter, I have been deeply disturbed by the terrible violence inflicted on so many people in the church,” Fehrs said, adding that the church “humbly accepts” the study's findings.
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