ROME: Pope Francis on Thursday rejected a proposal by Cardinal Reinhard Marx, a high German bishop, to resign over the mishandling of sexual abuse and cover-up scandals.
“Proceed as you plan (in your pastoral work) however as Archbishop of Munich and Freising,” the pope wrote to Marx, referring to the place he was providing to vacate.
Marx introduced earlier this month that he had provided the pope his resignation over the church’s “institutional and systemic failure” in dealing with baby intercourse abuse scandals.
The beautiful determination got here after the church in Germany, like in lots of locations elsewhere, was shaken by allegations of wide-ranging abuse by clergymen in opposition to minors.
In his letter, the pope agreed with Marx in calling the clerical sexual abuse scandals “a disaster” and the best way the Catholic Church handled them “till not too long ago”.
“The complete Church is in disaster due to the abuse subject” and “the Church can not proceed with out tackling this disaster. The coverage of burying the pinnacle within the sand leads nowhere,” he wrote.
In his authentic letter to the pope dated Could 21 and printed on June 4 by his archdiocese, Marx stated: “You will need to me to share the duty for the disaster of the sexual abuse by Church officers over the previous a long time.”
Investigations and stories had “constantly proven there have been many private failures and administrative errors but in addition institutional or ‘systemic’ failure,” added Marx, who was president of the German Bishops’ Convention from 2012 to 2020.
Slamming colleagues who “refuse to consider there’s a shared duty on this respect”, he stated the Church was at “a useless finish”.
Marx — who was by no means personally accused of abuse or cowl up, and who would have remained a cardinal even when Francis had allowed him to give up as archbishop — added that he hoped his resignation would supply a brand new starting for the Church.
Talking to journalists, he confirmed the pope had given him permission to publish the letter and that he would proceed in his function till he acquired a response to his supply.
