German Catholic Church shuts down Sex Abuse Hotline

[songfourone]

Germany’s Roman Catholic Church has shut a national hotline for victims of sexual abuse by priests because demand for it has dropped since the peak of the scandal in 2010, the bishop overseeing the project said.

The Church plans to continue studying clerical sex abuse and is in contact with potential research partners after sacking the criminologist it originally hired for an independent report on the issue, Bishop Stephan Ackermann told journalists.

Hotline director Andreas Zimmer said his service was flooded with calls when it opened in March 2010 but they soon fell off and only about a dozen a month were made in the second half of 2012. It handled 8,465 calls in almost three years of operation.





http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/...nd-tapers-off/

[songfourone]

The calls only "trickled down" to a dozen a month. WOW, minimize much?

[Baltimatt]

http://www.mittelbayerische.de/nachr...fklaerung.html

Die bundesweite kostenlose Hotline der Bischofskonferenz war im März 2010 freigeschaltet und Ende Dezember vergangenen Jahres beendet worden. Laut Tätigkeitsbericht wurden 8.465 Gespräche geführt und 465 Beratungen über Internet durchgeführt. Knapp 64 Prozent der Nutzer der Hotline gaben an, selbst von sexueller Gewalt betroffen gewesen zu sein; 18,8 Prozent waren Familienangehörige, Therapeuten oder Anwälte.

The national free hotline run by the Bishops' Conference was opened in March 2010 and ended in December of last year. According to an activity report, 8,465 conversations were conducted along with 465 consultations over the internet. Just under 64% of callers to the hotline admitted to have been victims of sexual assault. 18.8% were family members, therapists, or attorneys.

This contracts the Reuters report that 3/4 of the victims were male. The site is Domradio, which appears to be the radio station of the archdiocese of Cologne.

Die Auswertung der Telefon-Hotline habe bei den Opfern sexueller Gewalt durch kirchliche Mitarbeiter einen ungewöhnlich hohen Männeranteil von fast 90 Prozent ergeben, sagte Andraes Zimmer, Fachverantwortlicher für die bundesweit geschaltete Hotline. Normalerweise seien von sexueller Gewalt drei mal soviel Frauen wie Männer betroffen.

Laut Zimmer geht dies auf die Zeiten zurück, als an den üblichen Tatorten - Internate, Pfarreien sowie Kinder- und Jugendheimen - Mädchen seltener Zugang hatten. Die Studie berichtet von einem planvollen Vorgehen der Kirchenvertreter, die ihre Machtbefugnisse und die moralische Autorität ihres Amtes zum Missbrauch nutzten. Es gebe kaum Hinweise auf Zufallstaten, sagte Zimmer weiter. Die Opfer seien in der Regel auf Suche nach Unterstützung gewesen, entweder bei Schulproblemen, familiären Schicksalsschlägen oder auf der Suche nach Halt in Heimen.

The analysis of the telephone hotline shows that victims of sexual assault by church workers were male by an unusually high share of 90%, according to Andreas Zimmer, director of the nationally-available hotline. Normally females are impacted by sexual assault three times as often as males.

According to Zimmer, this goes back to the time when the usual crime scenes--boarding schools, rectories, as well as children and youth homes -- were seldom accessible to girls. The study reported of premeditated acts of representatives of the church, who used their privilege of power and the moral authority of their office for abuse. There were hardly any instances of chance encounters, Zimmer continued. The victims as a rule were in search of support for school problems, family issues, or looking to stay in a home.

[llubon]

"Victims can still seek Church counselling through local dioceses" from songforone article


After all that has happen to the victims (molestation,rape,moving priest,defending priest) would they even walk through the doors of the Catholic Church.

[songfourone]

And people keep dropping their hard earned money into the churches coffers each and every Sunday to pay for the sins of the Church.

[Baltimatt]

Songfourone--

In your article I could see a partial website, which I determined to be http://www.hilfe-missbrauch.de

Die Hotline der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz für Opfer sexualisierter Gewalt hat zum Ende des Jahres 2012 ihre Arbeit beendet. Wir danken allen, die sich per Telefon oder Mail an uns gewendet haben, für ihr Vertrauen; wir hoffen, dass wir unterstützen und weiterhelfen konnten. Ihre Berichte waren und sind uns ein Auftrag: Weiterhin dafür zu sorgen, dass die Erfahrungen von Opfern sexualisierter Gewalt nicht vergessen werden, sondern in Zukunft zur wirksameren Prävention beitragen.

The hotline of the German Bishops' Conference for victims of sexual abuse has finished its work at the end of the year 2012. We thank all of those who have turned to us by telephone or mail for your trust; we hope that we can support and further help. Your reports were and are our assignment: to further make efforts that the experiences of victims of sexual abuse will not be forgotten, but in the future will contribute to effective prevention.

Does this strike you as somewhat detached?

[songfourone]

Victims can still seek Church counselling through local dioceses, Ackermann said. About 600 victims have filed abuse claims against priests since the scandal broke in January 2010.

The lay movement We Are Church expressed disappointment with the closure and criticised some dioceses for assigning senior officials or local law firms as contact persons for victims rather than trained abuse counsellors as the hotline had.

http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/...nd-tapers-off/


So they have the Catholic Churches senior officials as contact persons since the hotline shut down, rather than trained abuse counsellors. Yes because if you have been sexually molested by a church official, that is exactly who you are going to go to to talk about it.

And people keep throwing their hard earned money into the coffers.

[songfourone]

Songfourone--

In your article I could see a partial website, which I determined to be http://www.hilfe-missbrauch.de



Does this strike you as somewhat detached?

Extremely, but nothing the Catholic Church does surprises me.