‘There was no real interest in your suffering’: Cardinal Marx apologizes to victims after Munich abuse report
Cardinal Reinhard Marx speaks at a press conference in Munich, Germany, Jan. 27, 2022. / Screenshot from erzbistum-muenchen.de.
Munich, Germany, Jan 27, 2022 / 04:09 am (CNA).
Cardinal Reinhard Marx offered a personal apology to abuse survivors on Thursday, in the wake of a report criticizing the handling of cases in his archdiocese of Munich and Freising.
Speaking at a press conference in Munich, southern Germany, on Jan. 27, the 68-year-old cardinal said that the treatment of victims was “inexcusable,” reported CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner.
“There was no real interest in your suffering,” he said.
The more than 1,000-page report, issued on Jan. 20, accused Marx of mishandling two abuse cases.
The cardinal told reporters that he intended to remain in office for now, but did not rule out seeking to resign for a second time.
“If I or others get the impression that I am more of an obstacle, I will allow myself to be critically examined,” he commented.
Marx wrote to Pope Francis in May 2021, offering to resign amid the fallout from the clerical abuse crisis in Germany. The pope declined his resignation in June of that year.
Westpfahl Spilker Wastl, the law firm that produced the study, presented the report’s conclusions at a press conference in Munich.
Marx was not present at the event and Marion Westpfahl, a founding partner of the firm, lamented the cardinal’s absence as she presented the report.
In a brief statement hours after the report’s publication, Marx said that he was “shocked and ashamed” at its findings.
More to follow…