The report on sexual abuse by clergymen in the Archdiocese of Freiburg incriminates the former Archbishop Robert Zollitsch (84). During his tenure, Zollitsch completely ignored canon law – i.e. church law – in connection with cases of abuse, said Eugen Endress, one of the authors of the report, on Tuesday in Freiburg.
Endress cited as an example that a clergyman who violated celibacy was punished, while abuse of children and young people was not punished under canon law. “We were speechless.”
Zollitsch, former chairman of the Catholic German Bishops’ Conference, had already admitted serious mistakes and personal guilt in a video. “He was correct in that self-assessment,” said retired judge Endress, referring to the statements. Before the press conference, Zollitsch announced through a spokesman that he did not want to comment on the final report.
The predecessor of the incumbent Archbishop Stephan Burger led the Archdiocese of Freiburg from 2003 to 2013. From February 2008 to March 2014 he was Chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference. From 1983 onwards, Zollitsch had been a personnel officer in the archbishop’s ordinariate for two decades. With around 1.8 million Catholics, the Archdiocese is one of the largest of the 27 dioceses in Germany.
The Freiburg report was presented by an independent working group. The so-called AG file analysis with four external experts from the judiciary and criminal police has been working since 2019. The report is intended to show how cover-up and abuse were possible in the archdiocese. 24 cases of abuse are presented as examples.
Similar studies have already been carried out in other dioceses, for example in Cologne and Munich. In Rottenburg-Stuttgart, unlike in other dioceses, Bishop Gebhard Fürst convened an independent “Commission on Sexual Abuse” a good 20 years ago.
Archdiocese of Freiburg Archdiocese on report, 23.1.
