Criminal proceedings and victim protection

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About a month after the start of the Round Table "Sexual Abuse" of the Federal Government, the three working groups are now meeting for the first time, the concrete factual work begins. Starting today, the Federal Ministry of Justice will make the first move. The question of compensation payments will play a central role here.

According to a BMJ spokesman, it is to deal in the coming months with the enforcement of the state's right to punishment, with legal policy consequences and the "recognition of the suffering of the victims". On Tuesday, Kristina Schroder (CDU) will kick off the "Prevention and Intervention" working group at the Ministry of Family Affairs, which will initially focus on developing standards in institutions. In two and a half weeks, on 7. June, the third round of meetings will be the research ministry's working group with State Secretary Cornelia Quennet-Thielen. It will focus on scientific research on pedophilia and therapeutic options, as well as education and training for teachers and also family doctors. Thus the round table draws its circles. Am 23. On April 1, about 60 experts and representatives of social groups sat together in a large circle. Hardly everyone got a chance to speak. Now Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger (FDP) alone will welcome a good 40 experts – victim representatives, speakers from the judicial professions and youth work, from churches, sports and child protection, members of the Bundestag and scientists. The further rounds will be similarly large. Enforcement of the state's right to punish As a prelude, the enforcement of the state's right to punishment is on the agenda at the BMJ. Program points include the status of victims in criminal proceedings, the question of a legal obligation to involve investigators and police authorities in cases of suspicion, and recognition of the suffering of victims "in every respect". Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger already has concrete expectations for all of these topics, she made clear this week during an appearance at the Peter Maffay Foundation in Berlin. For example, she called for more empathy on the part of the public prosecutor's office in order to achieve "even better" protection of children in investigative proceedings. It can thus be amed that, in an international comparison, the so-called Swedish model is also being considered in their house. This concept aims to spare the child in question as much as possible from making any unnecessary statements. "Question of some financial recognition" The liberal again urged reporting any suspicion of sexual abuse to the public prosecutor's office. So far, there is no legal obligation to do so. "No institution has the right to put itself in the place of the judiciary," she said. And the minister urged "institutions" – by which, in view of the previous fronts, the Catholic Church was surely meant first and foremost – to "do something" in concrete financial terms, even in the case of long-ago cases of abuse that are now becoming public. They would stand in the responsibility. "In the end, there must also be the question of a certain financial recognition," said the minister. She expressly emphasized that the state could also participate in this, in addition to the institutions concerned. The three working groups will probably meet about four times this year. The plenum of the round table has a date and an "interim report" towards the end of the year in mind. This means that the working groups will probably continue their work in 2011.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, a few weeks before the election, clearly distinguished herself from the FDP on a number of sociopolitical ies and emphasized the CDU's Christian view of humanity. In an interview with the Catholic News Agency (KNA) in Berlin on Friday, Merkel commented on bioethical and family policy ies, the integration of Muslims and on her relationship with the pope.

CBA: Madam Chancellor, the pope will not come to Germany next year. Will you still meet him in the foreseeable future?
Merkel: I remember with pleasure the intense conversations I had with Pope Benedict XVI. and I know that, even in view of the financial market crisis, he is taking a very close look at ies of social responsibility. And so there are many topics of conversation that will be of common interest even after what I hope will be a successful Bundestag election. I look forward to further talks with the pope, gladly also as a guest.
CBA: The disagreements following the Williamson affair have thus been settled?
Merkel: Regarding the statements of Williamson, who relativized the Holocaust on German soil, I said what had to be said from my point of view. The Pope's personal stance on the Holocaust is and has been beyond doubt for me at all times.
CBA: According to the polls, it could be that you, that the CDU/CSU will soon have a majority together with the liberals. Aming that would be the case – will the topic of further liberalization of stem cell research then be negotiable for the CDU?
Merkel: The question of stem cell research and other bioethical ies are viewed differently by the CDU/CSU and the FDP. These ies are certainly a distinguishing feature of the CDU and CSU from all other parties, including the FDP. The CDU will not open itself to the ideas of the FDP, which are very far-reaching. We have already decided to postpone the cut-off date for stem cell research in this legislative period, which has already caused a lot of controversy. I see no need for further liberalization. We have the greatest common ground with the Liberals in economic policy, but in family policy, or even on stem cells or the topic of "living wills," it is different.. Here we are committed to the "C", i.e. the Christian image of mankind.
CBA: Where then are the differences in family policy?
Merkel: There is, for example, the question of the adoption of children also for same-sex partnerships, which is debated differently by the CDU/CSU and the FDP. The maintenance of spousal splitting is another ie in this context. It is important to us in order to underline the special protection of marriage. Here the Union has clear principles.
CBA: Part of your biography is that you are both a pastor's daughter and a physicist. How do you reconcile the Christian belief in the Creator God with the world view of natural science??
Merkel: For me, scientific knowledge, for example based on Darwin's theories, and my faith in God are very compatible. I don't believe that scientific exploration down to the smallest detail is a search for God, but that God is above it all. The earth in its scientific explorability is quite another matter.
CBA: When you think back 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall to the opposition groups in the Gethsemane Church or in the Zion Church in East Berlin: Is the impression correct that you kept a certain distance from this part of the reform movement?
Merkel: I fully shared the criticism of the socialist state, but some answers and conclusions were not close enough to reality for me. I remember, for example, how on 11. November, two days after the fall of the Wall, was at a birthday party with friends from church opposition groups. Most of them were happy about the looming end of the dictatorship, but rather unhappy about the idea of reunification and said that now the third way was over, now they would be incorporated, as it were, by the West. And I belonged to the very few in this round who was glad and spoke out for unity. At that time, there were many who had dreamed of something like a third way. I don't want to put that down, that's completely far from me, but it wasn't my attitude.
CBA: Interior Minister Schauble has taken a step toward political and social integration of Muslims in Germany with the Islam Conference. How do you envision this process playing out in the long run? Will there someday be Muslim holidays as state holidays in Germany? Will we have a Muslim chancellor one day?
Merkel: Our Basic Law guarantees freedom of religion, so there are no restrictions. It is important to me that we put this into lived reality as well. We have done two things in the past four years. On the one hand, we have brought the ie of integration as a central task here to the Chancellor's Office with Minister of State Maria Bohmer. In the coming years, we must take further steps to ensure good coexistence in everyday life. The second is the dialogue with Muslims that Wolfgang Schauble is conducting as the minister responsible for churches and religious communities. In the long term, we are striving for better state relations with Muslims. It is not always easy with Islam because of the different theological schools and nationalities and because there is no central point of contact. This is certainly a longer process both between the state and Muslims and between the different directions of Muslims among themselves. But from my point of view it is a very important process. And the dialogue between the churches and the Islamic representatives in Germany should also continue, which is also not always very easy and which must nevertheless be conducted with all seriousness.
CBA: But you see what has been achieved so far in the Islam Conference as a success?
Merkel: Yes, I see this as a clear step forward, even if we still have a long way to go. Incidentally, that's how participants at the Islam Conference saw it, too.
CBA: And the Islamic holidays?
Merkel: So I honestly don't see that. What I think is very important for the next few years is that we increasingly know more about each other. Not so long ago, hardly any non-Muslim knew anything about Ramadan, but today it's quite different. And the more Muslim employees there are in companies or even in administration or in the police and in ministries¸ the broader this knowledge becomes. This enriches our coexistence. The interview was conducted by KNA editor-in-chief Ludwig Ring-Eifel.

Wurzburg's Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus Helmut Bauer has apologized for beating students. "This action was wrong and I am sorry," Bauer wrote in a statement read at a press conference in Wurzburg on Thursday.

The diocese's representative for victims of sexual abuse and violence, Klaus Laubenthal, said that three victims had contacted him and made accusations against Bauer. According to their information, the beatings involved were "probably also administered with corporal punishment objects common at the time". Specifically, the accusations refer to the 1960s and 1970s. At the time, Bauer served as director of the Kilianeum Episcopal Seminary for Students in Bad Konigshofen and then in the same capacity at the Kilianeum Episcopal Seminary for Boys in Wurzburg until 1983. The emeritus auxiliary bishop himself could not remember "with the best of his knowledge and conscience" concrete acts, but gave credibility to those affected. He does not doubt "the representations of former students". Corporal punishment angebrac As an educator at the time, Bauer said he believed "corporal punishment" was appropriate as a pedagogical measure in certain cases. Despite the usual right of chastisement, as a priestly director of a boarding school he should not have carried out such chastisements "out of the spirit of the Gospel", writes the clergyman. The auxiliary bishop has already apologized to two people and offered them a meeting, Laubenthal said. A third victim, known by name to the diocesan commissioner, wished to remain anonymous to the former auxiliary bishop. Bauer, now 77, was auxiliary bishop in Wurzburg from 1988 to 2008. After his ordination to the priesthood in 1957, he first worked as a chaplain in a Schweinfurt parish. This was followed by his activities in the educational institutions of the diocese. In 1983, then Wurzburg Bishop Paul-Werner Scheele appointed him cathedral pastor and cathedral chaplain. Wurzburg abuse commissioner presents interim report Laubenthal also presented an interim report of his work on Thursday. More than 54 reports of sexual abuse and violence have been received by the Diocese of Wurzburg in the past six weeks. 13 cases refer to religious orders, others to other dioceses or even to the non-ecclesiastical sphere. According to Laubenthal, the public prosecutor's office is dealing with five cases that directly concern the diocese. One of them refers to a priest who has already been convicted of a crime, as well as to the self-disclosure of a priest, about which the diocese informed the public last Friday. According to the lawyer, most of the reports of incidents at religious orders refer to a seminary of the Augustinian Order in Munnerstadt. Alleged victims had reported massive physical abuse, in which a sexual connection could not be ruled out. In one accusation, there was also talk of blows to naked genitals. In addition, there is another report concerning a Franciscan Minorite (76), which refers to his time in the Rhineland. The diocesan commissioner reported that more than two-thirds of those affected in the incidents already evaluated were male. Nearly 63 percent of the accusations involved sex-related acts, he said. One-third of the cases allegedly occurred in the 1960s, and another 20 percent in the 1950s. There are no reports from the past ten years.

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