Recognition payments take center stage

View into the meeting room of the city palace at the start of the fall plenary session © Arne Dedert

What are the results from Fulda? At the end of the fall plenary session of the German Bishops' Conference, the focus was on the consequences of a study on sexual abuse of children and adolescents.

The DBK chairman and Limburg Bishop Georg Batzing had already announced that the conference wanted to agree on concrete payments to the victims. At a press conference in the afternoon Batzing wants to inform about the results.

Those affected fear that the amount of money donated is too low

Concerned people fear from their point of view far too low amounts of money. One was "afraid" of what administrative, financial and legal experts of the Catholic Church had come up with without involving those affected, the spokesman for the victims' initiative "Eckiger Tisch," Matthias Katsch, had said. According to Katsch, the victims' initiative considers six-figure payments to be appropriate, especially since many of those affected are, for example, affected by occupational disability.

Several key topics

Among the focal points of the consultations was also the reform process Synodal Way with the four main topics position of women in the church, ecclesiastical sexual morality, dealing with power in the church and the prescribed celibacy of priests, celibacy. The bishops also addressed the impact of the Corona pandemic on church life.

The traditional fall plenary assembly lasts only three days this year instead of four due to corona.