Pope suspends polish bishop

adminonNovember 16, 2021January 5, 2022Leave a Comment

A documentary film got the ball rolling: Bishop of Kalisz alleged to have covered up sexual abuse. Now Pope Francis has acted and put Bishop Edward Janiak on leave of absence. The defends itself however with counter reproaches.

For several weeks now, a scandal involving Bishop Edward Janiak has been causing a stir in Poland. Since mid-May, several million people have watched the documentary "The Hide-and-Seek Game" on the Youtube video platform.

In it, the 67-year-old bishop of the central Polish city of Kalisz is accused of having done nothing about a priest who sexually abused children – even though their parents informed Janiak about it in 2016.

Now Pope Francis has suspended the bishop and appointed an interim head for the diocese, according to the Vatican nunciature in Warsaw on Thursday.

Pope withdraws all powers from bishop

The Archbishop of Lodz, Grzegorz Rys (56), received as Apostolic Administrator "sede plena" all powers to lead the diocese of Kalisz. Janiak was ordered to stay outside the diocese of Kalisz during the investigation into possible failings, the nunciature said. This means that he "cannot intervene in any way in the administration of the diocese of Kalisz".

In early June, the Vatican's Congregation of Bishops had instructed Poznan Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki, as the metropolitan in charge, to investigate the allegations against Janiak. The investigation continues.

Bishop accused, among other things, of not informing Vatican of abuse allegations against priest.

Janiak protests against investigation

Janiak rejects the accusations. In mid-June, he also wrote this to many fellow bishops. The letter was leaked to the newspaper "Gazeta Wyborcza" and published by it. The bishop complains bitterly about Poland's Primate Archbishop Wojciech Polak, who immediately after the publication of the film had initiated an investigation by the Vatican.

Polak is also Child Protection Officer of the Polish Bishops' Conference. Polak has damaged the reputation of the Church, caused great confusion and prejudged him, protests Janiak in his letter.

Bishop doubts legality of foundation

But that's not all: Janiak also claimed that the primate had not been duly elected as child protection commissioner.
His appointment was forced instead, he said. In addition, there had been manipulations in the establishment of the "Saint Joseph Foundation" of the Bishops' Conference for victims of sexual abuse. The majority of bishops would have voted against the creation of the foundation, but the result had been changed to a positive vote.

Responsibility for education lies with the Holy See

The Secretary General of the Bishops' Conference, Bishop Artur Mizinski, denied this, as did Polak. After the documentary, he "could not remain silent or inactive," the primate referred to Vatican regulations. Janiak has in the procedure, "a real chance to present his arguments in his defense". The evaluation of the case lies exclusively in the competence of the Holy See. Polak stressed that he was concerned about the well-being of the victims and the true well-being of the Church.

Most recently, "Gazeta Wyborcza" reported that Janiak had come to the Kalisz clinic in early June with a suspected stroke. There, however, they had only determined that he was heavily intoxicated: 3.44 per mille resulted in the Meng.

Symbolic image of abuse in the Catholic Church © Artur Szczybylo (shutterstock)

Those affected by the sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in Mecklenburg are now to be included in the process of coming to terms with it. The researchers from the University of Ulm commissioned with the study invite them to interviews, as the Archdiocese of Hamburg announced on Tuesday.

Alternatively, it would also be possible to fill out a questionnaire. The surveys took place anonymously, it was said. Those affected, who had contacted the independent contact persons of the archdiocese in advance, are invited to participate by letter. It is the overriding goal of the study to "make the individual experiences of those affected visible," it says. In addition, church-institutional and societal conditions should be recorded "and ways of influencing measures to detect the crime, punish the perpetrators and prevent it should be investigated".

Interview and questionnaire should include information on the crime, the circumstances of the crime, the consequences for the victims and the influence of the abuse on the further course of life. In addition, the "retrospective evaluation of hindering and promoting reactions/measures to uncover the crime and punish the perpetrator" will be queried.

Coming to terms with the period from 1945 to 1989

Archbishop Stefan Hebe had set up an advisory board in 2018 to deal with sexual abuse in the Catholic Church of Mecklenburg. The latter commissioned scientists from the University of Ulm with a two-year research project. The reappraisal, led by psychiatrist Manuela Dudeck, covers the period from 1945 to 1989.

A study by the German Bishops' Conference had registered a particularly large number of cases of sexual abuse in the Mecklenburg part of the Archdiocese of Hamburg. According to the report, 17 priests are known to have committed acts of abuse against 54 children and adolescents. One of the main suspects is the priest Hermann-Josef Timmerbeil, who died in 1979 and led the parish of Neubrandenburg between 1946 and 1975.

Backlasting for a special year for war and crisis journalism

Image: Malte Daniljuk, Data: IFEM

The myth in foreign reporting using the example of Ukraine conflict in German media

The crisis around Ukraine has polarized the German publicity in unprecedented ways. However, not, as provided for in a liberal scheme of publicity, different opinions in the area of the media depicted publicity opposite. The ditch ran between coarse parts of the audience and the professional editors. The network media contributed significantly to reproducing this disintegration gap in the previously unknown manner.

Protest on the 24. November 2013 in Kiev. Image: Ivan Bandura / CC-BY-SA-2.0

The Ukraine conflict in the German media

As from 21. November 2013 The first demonstrations on the Kiev independent place, the Maidan, collected in protesting, on the other hand, that the Government of Yanukovich had suspended the Association Agreement with the European Union, editors were first surmounted by the European Union. Within a few days, however, a dominant reading of events prevailed, the connoisants of the domestic situation in Ukraine already as undifferentiated or. had to appear one-sided. This type of first reports already presented schemes that should be paid over the entire following year.

From the first day arguments hardly played a role against the agreement in question. The fact that there were also demonstrations against an EU association, highly besides caught. Reporting was not a social debate about a controversial topic, but named polar positions – for or against the agreement. Positions and perspectives of the then opposition took a gross space of gross space. Reports, partly, suggested that a totality ("The capital Kiev", "Ukraine") themselves "rebelled against Prasident Wiktor Yanukovich". As apparent independent experts, representatives of professive Think-Thanks as the Renaissance Foundation testified this dominant view.

The political spectrum of the euro Maidan was not completely depicted. Although it was partly mentioned that together with the parties of Vitali Klitschko and Julia Tymoshenko, right-wing radicals of the Swoboda Party took part in the federal government, which immediately had militant against institutions of the chosen government and the police. However, they were damaged in reporting ("Nationalists", "right populist"To). Your occurrence was either uncommented or completely concealed. The partially extremely violent forms of the protest was either ignored or unusually uncritical as a self-relative expression of a "Democratic opposition" taken against a non-legitimate ruler.

This strong degree of negative personalization, incoming the person of Prasident Wiktor Yanukovych, determined the reporting from the beginning. When asked about its legitimity, a faster view of the regional voice distribution in the past elections had already been sufficient to see that no governing party in the young history of Ukraine had a nationwide recognition.

Background to the political and economic system of Ukraine, their political core and parties, which cited frequently in view of the at least beginning "Orange revolution" Underlying basic knowledge, hardly played a role. Therefore, a striking loss represents this because parts of the EU, in particular Germany, with the Association Agreement u.a. invited the claim that the legislative politician Julia Tymoshenko was prematurely dismissed, as was still reported. The conflict was thus directly linked to the opposed nature of political parties.

Massive and consonant presentation

A comparison of the first reports on the emerging domestic conflict in Ukraine already shows that in the various professional mass media, private and public, in radio, print and television, was strongly uniformly reported. The absolutely convenient part of the contribution came from the coarse agencies Reuters, AFP and DPA, which led over different media to exactly equal reports about various media. Where own correspondents reported, they sort at this time in Moscow and Warsaw. Not a single German medium had its own permanently stationed correspondent in Ukraine.

From December 2013, the proportion of reports of Ukraine clearly increased without the need for the already introduced reading of the conflict significantly new perspectives. According to Infomonitor of the IFEM, the country already presented the most important international topic in December. The reporting was so extraordinarily massive that they drove up the proportion of German policy reporting overall, although the December otherwise is a politically evident month.

Image: Malte Daniljuk, Data: IFEM

In the next six months, the conflict remained not only the determining AUBENPolitic topic, but the main theme of the news above, whereby the Marz formed the absolute high point with the occupation of the Crimea. Only from June 2014, First, the Fubball World Cup and finally the offensive of the organization "Islamic state" in Syria and Iraq the topic of his top place. Since September, the scope of reporting is again at the already high level of December 2013.

In this way, Ukraine reporting was achieving the two characteristics that a topic of media policy can be particularly relevant. Media mediated content then develop a special effect on the view of relevant parts of the audience if they occur both massive and consonant. In a liberal mediendemocracy, this case should not actually occur. Different ownership forms and owners as well as various individual media with their respective editors should guarantee an AUBENPLURALITAT that a variety of providers ensures a balance in the achievable information.

In addition, the freedom of design and freedom of expression should provide a certain internal planitat within a media organization for a certain internal planitat. This refers to that even users of a single medium have to have the opportunity to get to know a varied spectrum of information and opinions. The principle of the internal plurality has a long time for the public broadcasting in Germany.

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