Clerical apologies should be no charm against enforcement of the law [Addendum]

Apologies from bishops apparently aren't considered an adequate substitute for enforcement of the law in Germany. According to CNN:

Investigators with the Munich State Prosecutors Office visited the Benedictine Abbey of Ettal on Tuesday afternoon as part of their ongoing investigation into allegations of sexual abuse of underage children by priests there.

,p>Authorities are now assessing evidence collected at the abbey, the prosecutors said.

The overarching scandal emerged in January, centered on a single school, and has been followed by a parade of disclosures whose pattern resembles that in Ireland and the U.S.

Once again, the Catholic church protected its authority, at the expense of the parishioners.

Addendum

What does the church do with offenders? The Irish Times, working from an Irish investigative report, found some had taken refuge, often still in the Catholic church's pay. The Belfast Times reports that some were or are in the U.S.

Victims of Dutch Catholic sexual abuse come forward: Investigation called for

One of the most powerful members of the Dutch Salesian order is among those accused of abusing men who are now adults, when they were boys.

Like the German revelations which erupted into public view in late January, this is snowballing as "the first testimonies of possible abuse at the hands of the Salesians in the 1960s and 1970s," first reported by NRC Handelsblad last week, provokes others to break their long silence.

Because the problem is believed to have been widespread, and involved the current bishop of Rotterdam, Ad van Luyn, Dutch elected officials are calling for an independent inquiry, reports Radio Netherlands:

Conservative MP and former public prosecutor Fred Teeven told NOS Radio, "Normally in such cases, there would be a police and justice investigation. But you can't do that now because the statute of limitation says the crimes are too long ago. In this case it would be wise if a team of experienced sex crime detectives is appointed in collaboration with the Roman Catholic Church, in order to conduct an independent investigation into what happened."

Following the revelations on Friday, Bishop Van Luijn of Rotterdam also said he wanted to launch an investigation. Bishop Van Luijn is currently chairman of the Dutch bishops conference. He was a teacher at the 's-Heerenberg school at the time of the abuse and he later became head of the Salesian order in the Netherlands. Immediately after the revelations a spokesperson from the bishop's palace turned down pleas for an inquiry, saying that it was up to the current head of the school to account for what may have happened, but Bishop Van Luijn said on Sunday he was appalled by the findings of the reporters.

Christian Democrat MP Marleen De Pater told NOS Radio that she first wants to see the results of Bishop Van Luijn's inquiry before deciding on the next step. She appeared reluctant to involve the police or legal authorities from the outset.

Ms De Pater said, "Bishop Van Luijn is taking the initiative to scrutinise his own organisation to find out what happened. That is a display of responsible behaviour, and I assume he will engage independent experts. On the basis of their findings we could decide whether more research is needed with the involvement of police and legal authorities."

The Irish did "more research" and found a sweeping, decades deep breach of trust by the Catholic Church -- part of what is ever more clearly an unresolved, multinational issue. Papal acknowledgment of the obvious -- that child sexual abuse is a "heinous crime" -- unpersuasive. Reluctant apologies for the long-concealed horrors, unaccepted.

Scientology in Germany

Still in trouble in Germany, Scientology was the target of an official warning via a public kiosk early this year that "the district of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf 'expresses its opposition to the activities of the Scientology sect in this district and in Berlin, and hopes that responsible parties in Berlin will watch the Scientology sect with a critical eye in the near future, and that any new information will be made public.'"

In 2007 a German court ruled that ongoing surveillance by the government there was merited.

Neither a religion nor an ideology under a German Federal Labor Court ruling, the six-story, 43,000 square foot center "in the upscale western Berlin district of Charlottenburg" was found in 2007 to be subject to Sunday closing laws.

Ursula Caberta, who heads a working group that studies Scientology in the Hamburg senate, told Der Tagesspiegel that it was one of several new centers [London, Madrid, Brussels] which are part of a campaign to "'scientologize' Europe once and for all. They want to influence politics. We have to take that very seriously."

According to Speigel.Online:

The Church of Scientology is a controversial organization in Germany, and is regarded as dangerous by the federal government. It is one of the organizations currently being monitored by Germany's Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the country's domestic intelligence agency, which also keeps an eye on neo-Nazis, left-wing extremists and Islamist terrorists.

"There is substantial evidence that the Scientology Organization is involved in activities directed against the free democratic order," the Office for the Protection of the Constitution warns in its most recent annual report.