“The representation” of the “individual cases has deeply disturbed me”. “In particular, I am saddened by the suffering caused to the victims”. That’s how Cardinal Karl Lehmann, president of the German Episcopal Conference and bishop of Mainz, responded in recent days to an article published in the weekly magazine “Der Spiegel” on paedophilia and priests. The magazine reports among others the case of a parish priest accused of paedophilia for acts allegedly committed in 1988 against a fourteen-year-old altar-boy in a parish of the Taunus, which forms part of the diocese of Mainz. The cardinal promised that the diocese would begin a “rapid and thorough” investigation and announced that “during its autumn plenary session in September, the Episcopal Conference would approve a package of “measures to prevent and deal with cases of illicit conduct by ecclesiastical personnel”. Meanwhile the bishopric of Mainz has given notice of the suspension of the “accused from his duties as a priest until the accusations have been fully explained”.
