Bishop Bätzing expresses his irritation at the Pope's statement on sexual abuse

Limburg Bishop Georg Bätzing is irritated by Pope Leo XIV's statements about the causes of sexual abuse in the church. The church must not fall behind the knowledge it has already gained, warns Bätzing in a position that the diocese of Limburg published on its website on Tuesday.

“Today we know a lot about how sexual abuse became possible in the Catholic Church, why it was covered up for decades and which church structures facilitated it,” said Bätzing.

On the flight back from a trip to France, the Pope recently expressed skepticism about the concept of systematic abuse in the Catholic Church.

There are some organizations within the church that have "at times - if you will - acted abusively as a system," said Leo. “But I think it’s important to make a distinction here: sexual abuse is primarily a human problem.”

Bätzing, however, referred to the so-called MHG study from 2018. This study - commissioned by the German bishops - made it clear that sexual abuse in the church cannot only be understood as the misconduct of individual perpetrators: "There are specific church risk and structural characteristics that have encouraged abuse and made it more difficult to detect," said Bätzing.

According to the Limburg bishop, these include clericalism and unequal power relations, the exaggeration of priestly authority, problematic forms of personality development and psychosexual maturation, as well as a taboo approach to sexuality and sexual orientation.

Bätzing was chairman of the German Bishops' Conference until the end of February this year. His successor is the Bishop of Münster, Heiner Wilmer.