CHAIN THE DOGMA

The Local - Germany's News in English  January 28, 2010

Sex abuse revelations rock elite Catholic school in Berlin

The headmaster of an elite Jesuit high school in Berlin has sent a letter to former students asking them to come forward about systematic sexual abuse by priests there in the 1970s and 1980s.

His letter was sent to some 600 former students at Canisius College who may have been victims of at least two priests on staff, Father Klaus Mertes told daily Berliner Morgenpost on Thursday.

“With deep shock and shame, I have learned of these horrific, not only isolated, but systematic violations that went on for years,” wrote Mertes, who has been headmaster of the central Berlin school for 10 years.

The headmaster said he did not know how many children might have been abused by the priests, who he said left the school in the 1980s.

“The weight of the incidents overwhelmed me,” he told the paper. “I have promised the victims full discretion. They are free to go to the public or the police.”

But so far no criminal complaints have been filed, the paper reported.

The Canisius College is one of just three private Jesuit schools in the country and has educated well-known economic and political leaders.

In recent years isolated reports of abuse surfaced, Mertes said. But after an internal document about the abuse was recently sent out, more former students came forward. Their stories convinced him that the abuse had taken place systematically over several years.

“I feel obligated to the students above all, and not as much to the reputation of the school or myself,” Mertes told the paper.

This article was found at:

http://www.thelocal.de/society/20100128-24875.html

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The Irish Times - Friday, January 29, 2010

Apology over sex abuse by Jesuit priests

by DEREK SCALLY in Berlin

THE RECTOR of an elite Jesuit school in Berlin has apologised to former students who were sexually abused by two teachers three decades ago.

Pastor Klaus Mertes of Canisius College in central Berlin wrote a letter to some 600 students who attended the school between 1975 and 1989, requesting that other abuse victims come forward.

“It was with deep shock and shame that I learned of these revolting, systematic assaults,” he wrote in a letter of apology, published in yesterday’s Berliner Morgenpost newspaper.

“Among those who had a duty to protect the victims at Canisius College, and among the order,” he said, “there was a culture of looking away.”

Pastor Mertes said he was first made aware of the problem after being approached by former victims late last year. He commissioned an internal investigation and said he was “shocked at the vehemence of the attacks” detailed in the final report given to him two weeks ago. He wrote to all former students and has encouraged them to go to the police.

“He chose this course of action after it became clear it wasn’t just a matter of few cases but that things had taken on another dimension,” said Berlin lawyer Ursula Raue, who has advised the Jesuits in Germany on abuse cases since 2007.

She said the two priests in question had since left the Jesuit order and are no longer teaching in schools.

Legal action against them is unlikely as the abuse claims fall outside the statute of limitations.

In a frank letter, Pastor Mertes said the abuse problem was aggravated by a lack of a complaints procedure within the Jesuit order; an institutional inability of critical self-analysis; an “obsession with church sexual pedagogy” and a “disproportionate use of power”.

The school was founded in 1925 and is located in the former Krupp headquarters, adjacent to Berlin’s Tiergarten Park.

It was closed by the Nazis in 1940. After reopening five years later, it schooled many leading Berlin politicians, judges and scientists.

Separately, a court in Tennessee has granted an asylum request for a fundamentalist Christian family who were refused permission to home-school their children in Germany. Uwe and Hannelore Romelke emigrated to the US with their five children in 2008 to circumvent an obligation in Germany for all children to attend a state or private school.

“They were concerned about things going on in the public schools, the bullying and the curriculum that they felt taught ideas that were against their faith, and were compelled to home school their kids,” their defence lawyer, Mike Donnelly, told television network ABC.

Granting the asylum application on religious grounds, the court agreed that the Christian family faced a “well-founded chance of persecution” in Germany. Presiding Judge Lawrence Burman said German schooling laws “contradict everything we Americans believe in”.

Mr Romelke was fined €7,000 in Germany after taking his three oldest children out of school in 2006.

This article was found at:

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2010/0129/1224263349863.html

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The Local - Germany's News in English  January 30, 2010

Former Jesuit teacher admits abuse

One of the former teachers and Jesuit priests accused of sexually abusing students at the elite Berlin high school Canisius College has confessed to the charges.

In a statement addressed to his victims, the former sports teacher Wolfgang S. said it was "a sad fact that I abused children and young people for years under pseudo-educational pretexts." He said there was "no excuse."

The confession follows revelations on Thursday that dozens of students had been abused in the top Berlin school in the 1970s and 1980s.

The school's headmaster Father Klaus Mertes sent a letter to some 600 former students at Canisius College who may have been victims of at least two priests on staff. “With deep shock and shame, I have learned of these horrific, not only isolated, but systematic violations that went on for years,” wrote Mertes, before adding that both priests left the school in the 1980s.

“The weight of the incidents overwhelmed me,” he told the Berliner Morgenpost newspaper. “I have promised the victims full discretion. They are free to go to the public or the police.”

The 65-year-old man Wolfgang S., currently living in South America, claimed that he had informed his Jesuit superiors of his criminal past in 1991.

The current Jesuit provincial leader confirmed to the news magazine Der Spiegel that the order did know of Wolfgang S.'s crimes, and has hired a lawyer "to ascertain what the Jesuits specifically knew at the time, and what steps were taken."

S. reportedly left the brotherhood in 1992, and is suspected of having abused young boys at other Jesuit schools in Germany before then, but he did not comment on this. He also taught at Jesuit schools in Hamburg and the Black Forest region, and claimed that the Vatican had been aware of his crimes.

The second suspect in the Canisius case is the 69-year-old former religion teacher Peter R. from Berlin, but he has denied all charges and is unavailable for comment.

In recent years isolated reports of abuse surfaced, Mertes said. But after an internal document about the abuse was recently sent out, more former students came forward. Their stories convinced him that the abuse had taken place systematically over several years.

The Canisius College is one of just three private Jesuit schools in the country and has educated well-known economic and political leaders.

This article was found at:

http://www.thelocal.de/national/20100130-24919.html