Will there be a new negotiation?

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Pastor Olaf Latzel © Sina Schuldt

Following the verdict of the local court in Bremen against the Protestant pastor Olaf Latzel, the defense files an appeal. The clergyman had been convicted of sedition the previous week.

The Bremen district court is deciding on the appeal, said Cosima Freter, spokeswoman for the district court, to the Evangelical Press Service (epd). The pastor of the Protestant St.-Martini congregation in Bremen was sentenced last Wednesday for incitement of the people to a prison sentence of three months, commuted to a fine of 90 daily sentences of 90 euros each. (Az: 96 Ds 225 Js 26577/20)

The presiding judge, Ellen Best, thus remained below the prosecution's demand for a sentence of four months. The defense had pleaded for acquittal. In explaining the sentence, Judge Best said Latzel had incited hatred against homosexuals in a "marriage seminar" distributed on Youtube.

Case to be reopened in appeal hearing

The 53-year-old had addressed 30 couples in a "biblical driving school on marriage" in October 2019. A recording of this was posted in March with his consent on his YouTube channel with nearly 25.000 subscribers put online. During the seminar, he warned, among other things, that homosexuality was a "degenerative form of society" and that "criminals from Christopher Street Day are running around everywhere".

Shortly after the verdict was pronounced, defense attorney Sascha Bottner had complained that the court had not called any witnesses from the marriage seminar. The prosecution had not filed an appeal by Tuesday morning, the deadline for which is Wednesday (2. December) from. In an appeal hearing, a case is completely reopened. Witnesses will be heard and the defendant will be questioned again.

Krakow Archbishop Stanislaw Cardinal Dziwisz. © Katharina Ebel (KNA)

Poland's judiciary does not open an investigation against former Krakow archbishop and papal secretary Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz. He was indicted for alleged cover-up of sexual abuse in the church.

After examining the case, the Krakow prosecutor's office on Thursday rejected a criminal complaint against the 81-year-old cardinal, according to Polish media reports. Dziwisz had not committed a crime because at the time, from 2006 to 2012, he was not legally required to report such allegations against priests to police or prosecutors.

Vatican should examine allegations

Leftist MEP Lukasz Kohut had denounced the prominent churchman in November after the TV report "Don Stanislao – The Other Face of Cardinal Dziwisz" was broadcast. In broadcast by private channel TVN24, Dziwisz was accused of ignoring evidence of child sexual abuse in the church when he was archbishop of Krakow. He strongly denied this and proposed an independent commission of inquiry into the allegations.

Kohut criticized the decision of the prosecutor's office: "In Poland the alliance between throne and altar goes on. Some go unpunished for now." Dziwisz served throughout John Paul II's pontificate. (1978-2005) its private secretary and then archbishop of Krakow until the end of 2016. The president of the Polish Bishops' Conference, Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki, had argued in November that the Vatican should investigate the allegations against Dziwisz.

29 pastors of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland have been investigated since 2003 on suspicion of sexual abuse. Among them are both criminal and disciplinary proceedings.

Church spokesman Jens-Peter Iven said on Tuesday during the EKiR synod in Bad Neuenahr. In 14 of the 29 cases, the verdicts were reached. Nine cases were dropped. Six more are still pending, three of which are being investigated by the public prosecutor's office.

Iven emphasized that some of these cases date back many years. This would also apply to cases reported by victims to the so-called independent commission of the national church.

Since the commission was set up in 2012, he said, 20 people had approached it. Seven of the accused were pastors; in thirteen cases, however, the abusers were youth workers, deacons or other church employees and volunteers.

State synod to pass prevention law

At its meeting, which runs until Thursday, the state synod plans to pass a prevention law to replace the "Guidelines for Dealing with Offenses Against Sexual Self-Determination" that have been in effect since 2003. According to the new law, full-time employees must submit an extended certificate of good conduct at the start of their service and then every five years.

The same rules are to apply to volunteers, provided they have contact with minors or dependent adults. In addition, there should be a ban on hiring people who have been convicted of a crime against sexual self-determination. All institutions are obliged to develop a protection concept.

Edwin Jabs, head of the Protestant Central Office for Family and Life Counseling, explained that the Rhenish regional church is concerned with coming to terms with the past and not with minimizing and covering up the past. "In the church, however, there is a certain guilelessness," he said. "One simply cannot imagine that sexual violence can occur in one's own parish, for example."That's why the church is now focusing on nationwide prevention programs.

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