Jakarta –
The German dioceses of Essen and Paderborn separately announced investigations into allegations of sexual abuse against Cardinal Franz Hengsbach (1910-1991) in 2011 and 2022.
Hengsbach was accused throughout his career of sexually assaulting three people, at least two of whom were young women, one a minor.
The first allegation was that he molested a 16-year-old girl in 1954 when he was auxiliary bishop of the city of Paderborn. The victim first came forward with the allegations in 2011, 10 years after Hengsbach’s death.
Accusers also leveled allegations of abuse against Hengsbach’s brother, Paul. Also a pastor, Paul Hengsbach vehemently denied the accusations until his death in 2018.
Church investigators’ initial conclusions ‘questionable’
At that time, the case was first reviewed by the Vicariate General of Paderborn and then sent to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican in Rome. Both dismissed the allegations as “absurd,” and refused to compensate the accusers.
However, officials in Paderborn said that while reviewing the case, they found that the initial assessment was “clearly questionable.”
Diocese of Essen: Allegations of sexual abuse ‘serious’
The second case comes from Hengsbach’s leadership of Essen, the diocese he founded in 1958 and led until his death in 1991.
The crime reportedly occurred in 1967 when Hengsbach was bishop.
Both dioceses have invited anyone who was a victim to come forward as the investigation continues.
The Diocese of Essen called the allegations “serious”. The current Bishop of Essen, Franz-Josef Overbeck, said he first heard about the allegations this March and promised transparency.
Johannes Norpoth, spokesman for the victims’ advisory council of the German Catholic Bishops’ Conference, welcomed news of the investigation.
In an interview with the German Catholic News Agency (KNA), Norpoth said there was no reason to doubt the accuser’s account and praised the courage it took to confront “a legendary figure in the industrial Ruhr region” in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Norpoth accused Essen and Paderborn of irresponsibility when handling allegations about Hengsbach in 2010 and 2011, and said that the two dioceses “did not take the allegations seriously.”
If the allegations are proven true, Hengsbach, who was made a cardinal in 1988, would be the first high-ranking cleric in Germany to be found guilty of sexual abuse.
The victims’ advocacy group “Eckiger Tisch” has called for the creation of an independent commission to investigate the initial investigation, including who led the investigation, why it was stopped, and whether Cardinal Josef Ratzinger who, after leading the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, became Pope Benedict XVI (2005-2013) ) had something to do with the dismissal of the case.
“There must finally be an end to the Church, or the bodies commissioned by it, trying to resolve and deal with abuse cases on their own,” the group called.
The Diocese of Paderborn on Tuesday (19/05/2023) said that a reassessment of the case had led it to conclude that the accusations leveled against Hengsbach were in fact reasonable.
bh/rs (dpa, KNA)
Also see ‘Erick about the U-17 Pildun: Preparing the Best Committee – TC National Team to Germany’:
(ita/ita)
2023-09-20 04:49:59
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