Abuse report, school guidelines: The German bishops’ busy week
Description
Two highly anticipated events in the Catholic Church in Germany took place this week.
The first was the release of a report on the handling of abuse cases in the Trier diocese, where Cardinal Reinhard Marx (now of Munich) served as bishop from 2002 to 2007, and where Bishop Georg Bätzing (now German bishops’ conference chairman) was vicar general from 2012 to 2016.
The second was the publication of guidance for Catholic schools on the “recognition of the diversity of sexual identities,” a previous draft of which reportedly provoked disagreements among bishops.
Let’s consider each of these landmark developments more closely.
‘Old habits’ in Trier
In 2010, the Church in Germany was engulfed by an abuse crisis that prompted more than 100,000 Catholics to formally disaffiliate annually for the next 15 years.
In 2019, Cardinal Marx, the then bishops’ conference chairman, announced the launch of the “synodal way,” an initiative bringing together bishops and select lay people to discuss changes to Church teaching and practice.
Synodal way organizers insisted its primary goal was to ensure that abuse could never occur again on such a scale in the Catholic Church in Germany.
The initiative formally ended in 2023 with 150 pages of resolutions that included appeals for women deacons, a re-examination of priestly celibacy, lay preaching at Masses, a larger lay role in selecting bishops, and a revision of the Catechism of the Catholic Church on homosexuality.
Synodal way leaders argued that all the resolutions — no matter how disparate they seemed — had the unified goal of reducing abuse. The minority of participants who resisted the synodal way’s liberalizing drift said they were made to feel as if they were defending clerical crimes.
Marx, who also serves as the coordinator of the Vatican’s Council for the Economy, offered to resign as Archbishop of Munich and Freising in 2021, saying he wished “to share the responsibility for the catastrophe of the sexual abuse by Church officials over the past decades.” Pope Francis declined his resignation, but Marx was praised in some quarters for the gesture.
On Oct. 30, 2025, Marx issued a statement acknowledging the criticisms of his handling of abuse cases as Bishop of Trier.
The 139-page report, compiled by researchers at the University of Trier, concluded that Marx was not informed of all cases when he was installed in 2002. Under his leadership, the diocese failed to communicate adequately with law enforcement, engaged in “old habits of ‘pastoral leniency’” toward perpetrators, and offered concrete assistance to victims in only two cases.
Reflecting on the report, Marx said it had become increasingly clear to him “that during my time as Bishop of Trier, I did not perceive the issue of sexual violence and sexual abuse as comprehensively and clearly as would have been appropriate.”
“I am aware that the actions of the Trier diocese leadership during my tenure were therefore not always as unequivocal as I would wish them to be from today’s perspective,” he said.
“With the knowledge I have today, I would of course do some things differently, and we are indeed acting differently today. This applies in particular to those directly and indirectly affected. I deeply regret this and ask for forgiveness from those whom I have failed to treat fairly.”
The report looked more favorably on the tenure of Marx’s successor in Trier, Bishop Stephan Ackermann, who continues to lead the diocese. But despite noting improvements in the handling of abuse cases under Ackermann, it also offered criticisms.
The report said that under Ackermann, who oversaw the German bishops’ conference’s response to abuse cases from 2010 to 2022, the diocese processed cases slowly, communicated poorly, allowed convicted offenders to continue working in pastoral roles, and failed to shed light on failures under previous bishops. The report also criticized Ackermann for disclosing the name of a victim — who had requested a pseudonym — during an online meeting of diocesan employees.
In an Oct. 30 statement, Ackermann said: “I can only ask for forgiveness for the new pain that I or my colleagues have caused to victims of sexual violence in our diocese through our actions or inaction. It is their decision whether to grant this forgiveness.”
Bishop Bätzing, who succeeded Marx as bishops’ conference chairman in 2020, was mentioned 31 times in the Trier report. That’s not surprising given he played a major role in the diocese
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