The Catholic Church has fired a pastor who had abused girls for years in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He loses his special legal status as a spiritual minister. The priest was sentenced to 12 years in prison last year.
Between 1993 and 2018, he sexually assaulted nine girls in Gummersbach, Wuppertal and Zülpich, some of them seriously. The youngest victim was only nine years old. The first investigations against the priest were launched in 2010, but were initially halted. They were only resumed after an internal review by the Church.
“Grief Cannot Be Repaid”
On Thursday it was announced that the abuser had been released from the clergy. That is more than appropriate, “even though I know that it cannot make up for the suffering of those affected,” Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki said in a broadcast from the Archdiocese of Cologne. He stands for “a consistent path of prevention and education.” Dismissal is the harshest punishment. She is said to have met Pope Francis.
The clergyman now forever loses all rights and privileges associated with priestly ordination. In the future he may no longer be active in pastoral care or as a priest.
Source: Krone
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