Germany reels at abuse in top Jesuit school

The now familiar narrative of systematic abuse of children by priests has scandalised Germans, but campaigners fear the church’s perceived lack of will to change will deny victims justice, writes DEREK SCALLY in Berlin

IT IS 23 YEARS since Adam threw himself in front of a train. His family never knew why. Nor did they know until this week that, months before his death, the 24-year-old had tracked down Fr Peter, a former teacher who had abused him at Berlin’s elite Canisius College.

Adam found the Jesuit priest in the western city of Hildesheim in 1986, confronted him with a knife and stabbed him several times in the chest before fleeing. The priest was seriously injured and was rushed to hospital for treatment, but never pressed charges.

“It seems like others knew earlier what went on in Canisius College, but only now does it seem to concern us,” said Adam’s mother this week to German television. “Abuse seems to be everywhere.”

After years of watching Ireland’s unfolding clerical abuse drama, Germany now has its own home-grown scandal. What started at Berlin’s top Catholic school has, within a week, exploded into a familiar, depressing narrative. Physical violence against children; the sickening abuse of trust by priests; and the cowardly decision to move the abusers on to new pastures and new victims rather than dealing with the problem.

Germany’s Catholic church has not been immune to abuse allegations over the years but, until now, abusing priests were portrayed as isolated black sheep.

But that has changed with revelations of systematic abuse at Canisius College, founded in 1925 and still one of Berlin’s most exclusive schools.

Last month the principal, Fr Klaus Mertes, wrote, in an open letter to former pupils, of his shock and shame at the abuse allegations he had heard after being approached by former pupils. Worse, he said, was how an internal investigation revealed its systematic nature, encouraged by the school’s “culture of looking the other way”.

The Canisius allegations concern three Jesuit priests now in their 60s, all of whom are no longer in the order.

The first, Fr Wolfgang Stab, taught German, religion and physical education at the Berlin school from 1975 to 1979, and later at schools in Hamburg and in the Black Forest. Today, former pupils at all three schools tell of “excessive physical punishment rituals”.

“If we got bad grades, we were forced to lie naked across his lap for a spanking,” said one former student.

The priest moved to Chile in 1985 and left the order in 1992. He has admitted abuse and, last week, asked his victims for forgiveness.

More serious claims surround Fr Peter Riedel – the priest stabbed by a former pupil – who taught at Canisius College from 1971 to 1981.

“He would ask us if we had thought about girls and, if we admitted masturbating, had to show him how. We had to let ourselves be touched,” recalled another victim.

Fr Peter continued to work as a priest after leaving the Jesuits in 1995. In every posting – in Göttingen, Hanover and even Mexico – he faced allegations of sexual abuse of young girls. Letters of complaint were found this week in his file – unanswered.

Colleagues who asked why the priest was moved around so frequently were told a vague story about “financial irregularities” in his previous parish. Fr Peter lives in an upmarket neighbourhood of Berlin and denies all charges.

A third abusing priest who worked as a religion teacher in Canisius College in 1970-71 has since been identified as Bernhard Ehlert, head of a leading Catholic Third World charity. He resigned on Wednesday after he admitted abusing boys early in his career at the school.

Cardinal Georg Sterzinski, archbishop of Berlin, has weighed into the scandal, calling an emergency meeting on Tuesday of all Catholic school heads in the archdiocese. Already Fr Mertes of Canisius College is convinced he has gone public with just “the tip of the iceberg”.

“What has become visible with us happened at other schools,” he told Berlin’s Tagesspiegel newspaper. “But it is a disaster for the Jesuits because the heart of our order is the teacher-pupil relationship. What has happened here is the worst possible betrayal of our spirituality.” Former victims have few legal options: most child abuse offences in Germany can no longer be prosecuted after the victim turns 18; other abuse crimes fall outside the statute of limitations after five years.

Seasoned child welfare campaigners are doubtful that the Canisius College revelations will have a long-term effect.

“This scandal will end with the usual empty phrases and the church will sit it out until the next time,” says Johannes Heibel, founder of Germany’s Initiative Against Child Abuse.

“The church has to show from its side that is anxious to clear this up, to admit that this is not about individual cases, but I don’t see any indication of that willingness yet and we don’t have the means in Germany to exert real pressure.”

Source: http://christianchildabuse.blogspot.com/2010/02/germany-reels-at-abuse-in-top-jesuit.html

Texas must finally stop tolerating child abuse

It would seem almost providential that the state Blue Ribbon Task Force held its first meeting last week, just days before police say Elyse Colon stabbed her two little boys to death.

The task force, established by the Legislature last year, extends the child abuse-prevention work of Sen. Carlos Uresti beyond the San Antonio Democrat’s political borders. A group of nine appointed by the governor, lieutenant governor and House speaker will review how state, local and law enforcement agencies address child abuse. The Legislature will receive the task force’s recommendations next year.

The task force is inspired by countless tragedies. Per capita, Texas has a higher rate of child deaths from abuse or neglect than other states.

Last year was deadly. The state’s unofficial tally for the last fiscal year reported 275 children killed as the result of abuse or neglect. If the trend continues, before the group meets again in two weeks, another 10 or so children will be killed.

Locally, Colon’s name will briefly sear itself into our consciousness the way Otty Sanchez’s did last year and Valerie Lopez’s two years before that. Sanchez is accused of killing and dismembering her 3-week-old son, while Lopez is serving a life sentence in the deaths of her 14-month-old daughter and 4-month-old son, whose bodies were found buried under a Southwest Side home.

Then our attention will wane until another horrific death.

So prevalent is the mortal abuse and neglect of young children that risk is easily discerned. For instance, experts have determined children are especially vulnerable during the first five months of life, when extended periods of crying aren’t uncommon, and at the toddler/pre-school age, when potty-training accidents may be a factor.

With such clear patterns, why can’t more be done to prevent abuse?

The Austin-based Center for Public Policy Priorities last year analyzed Texas’ child abuse and neglect deaths, and the findings weren’t entirely surprising. Our high rate of child poverty and teen pregnancy are big contributors to the high abuse and death rates, as is lack of access to quality family-support services. Improving outlooks in all three areas, the nonpartisan policy institute’s analysis suggested, would be a good place to start.

James Castro, executive director of St. Peter-St. Joseph Children’s Home, is a governor’s appointee to the task force. The facility he heads has decades of experience dealing with children who have been removed from their homes by Child Protective Services because of abuse or neglect concerns. With capacity for 138 children, on Friday, St. PJ’s had 103.

The solution, Castro suggests, must include the kind of relentless passion that Mothers Against Drunk Driving summoned to tackle and make progress against the problem of drunken driving. MADD blanketed communities with education campaigns and exerted steadfast political pressure to increase penalties and prosecutions.

“We need to create the culture that we’re not going to tolerate it anymore,” Castro said.

My question: Why aren’t we already there?

Source: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/columnists/veronica_flores_paniagua/83694857.html

Pastor convicted of sexually abusing boys

GOSHEN – The former pastor of the Newburgh Church of God was convicted by an Orange County Court jury late Friday on all counts of an indictment that charged him of abusing three young boys over a two year period.

The jury deliberated for 2½ hours before finding Humberto Cruz, 39, guilty of all the charges against him, the most serious of which was course of sexual conduct against a child in the first degree, said District Attorney Frank Phillips.

Those charges stem from contact with two boys who were under the age of 13 during the time of the abuse from July 2004 through July 2006, said Phillips.

He was also convicted of seven counts of endangering the welfare of a child involving lesser crimes against a third boy.

When sentenced in April, Phillips said Cruz could get 25 years in prison. Until his sentencing, Cruz was remanded to the Orange County Jail without bail.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant DA Julie Mohl, a member of the Special Victims’ Unit.

Youth prisons face economic pressure

NI child sex abuse inquiry needed – Amnesty

Amnesty International has called for an inquiry into the extent of child abuse in Northern Ireland institutions run by both the state and the churches.

Its NI executive director told the SDLP conference the government should comply with its “international obligations”.

The call comes after the Ryan Report in the Irish Republic which uncovered decades of institutional abuse.

The NI Assembly has voted for a similar inquiry and Amnesty wants the Executive and UK government to make it a reality.

The Ryan Report accused the Irish Republic’s educational authorities, health boards and religious orders of failing to protect children or to investigate complaints.

Amnesty’s Northern Ireland programme director, Patrick Corrigan, said that “while Ryan stopped at the border, the abuse of children did not”.

He added: “We know this from the stream of Northern Irish victims and survivors now coming forward with credible stories of horrific abuse and neglect.”

And Colm O’Gorman, the organisation’s executive director, told the annual conference in Newcastle that as well as prosecuting individual abuse cases, it was also important to “learn the lessons of past failures”.

He said that inquiries in Wales and the Irish Republic had led to “significant advances” in child protection and children’s rights.

Any inquiry should be “independent, impartial and effective”, he added.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/8501623.stm