The expectations for the first interim report of the independent commission to deal with sexual abuse in the Diocese of Trier were high on Thursday.

Firstly, it had become public the day before that four priests in the Diocese of Trier, who were convicted of sexual abuse or possession of child pornography, were then employed in hospital chaplaincy during the tenure of Bishop Stephan Ackermann.

The diocese had confirmed a report in the “Christ & Welt” supplement of the weekly newspaper “Die Zeit”.

Accordingly, some of these were clinics with a children's ward.

Those responsible were not always informed about the past of the clergy.

Thomas Jansen

Editor in Politics.

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Second, the paths of three top representatives of the Catholic Church in Germany cross in the Diocese of Trier: In addition to Ackermann, these are Munich Archbishop Reinhard Cardinal Marx and the Chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, Georg Bätzing.

Marx was bishop in Trier from 2002 to 2008, Bätzing was vicar general there from 2012 to 2016 until his appointment to the head of the diocese of Limburg.

Marx has repeatedly admitted mistakes in dealing with a Trier abuse case.

He rejected the Federal Cross of Merit in 2021 after those affected protested against it in the Diocese of Trier.

And Ackermann, as the abuse officer of the German Bishops' Conference, has a role model function ex officio.

But there is none of this in the interim report of the investigation commission set up by Ackermann last year.

For the time being, it is limited to basic comments on the procedure, some statistical information and presents two examples of abuse from the 1950s to 1970s.

Other cases are to be processed later in an interdisciplinary study commissioned by historians and psychologists from the University of Trier.

Large number of victims

What is striking is the comparatively large number of victims identified by the Commission at this early stage.

For 513 people in the period from 1946 to 2021 there is proven or reliable evidence of sexual abuse in children and adolescents or as adults in need of protection.

The abuse study published in September 2018 on behalf of the German Bishops' Conference identified only 442 victims for the Diocese of Trier for the period up to 2014.

The interim report puts the number of accused or convicted perpetrators, priests and laypeople at 195.

The Commission certifies that the current diocese leadership behaves “cooperatively”, but sometimes criticizes the way those affected are dealt with.

The previous practice of granting access to files must be "significantly improved".

The authors of the report demand that those affected must be "granted access to the files relating to them and their case using a more transparent and less complicated procedure".

The diocese must also regularly inform those affected about the status of the church investigations.

The victims of sexual abuse must also be "comprehensively informed" about the outcome of the procedure and the measures imposed by the diocese.

Ackermann said that the report gives "some suggestions for a stronger orientation towards those affected - I also understand them as a call for further professionalization in the entire topic".

He has been the abuse commissioner for the German Bishops' Conference for twelve years.