Sex abuse
February 27, 2010
A priest in southern Germany resigned on Friday for failing to report sexual abuse accusations in the latest development of a scandal rocking the Catholic Church in Germany.
Maurus Krass, prior and head of a monastic school in Ettal, Bavaria, resigned for not relaying to clerical authorities allegations of child sex abuse between 2003 and 2005. He was the second to resign in three days after Barnabas Boegle, also from Ettal, stepped down on Wednesday for the same reasons.
The German Episcopal conference recently appointed Stephan Ackermann, bishop of the western town of Trier, as head of the investigation into the scandal. He said on Friday that he would pursue "with determination" all clues related to abuse committed by members of the church.
The Jesuit order has hired independent investigator Ursula Raue to assess the scope of the scandal. She has said about 120 people have come forward claiming they were abused.
A priest and a college rector in Bonn also resigned earlier this month in relation to the case, which first began when a Jesuit school in Berlin admitted to a systemic sexual abuse of its students by two priests in the 1970s and '80s.
acb/cmk/apn/AP/KNP
Editor: Andreas Illmer