German bishop faces new sex abuse inquiry

Tag: germany

BERLIN — A German bishop who offered his resignation after admitting that he had physically abused children as a priest is under investigation for sexual abuse, yet another blow to the Roman Catholic Church in Germany, which is reeling from a growing child-molestation scandal.

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According to a report Friday in the newspaper Augsburger Allgemeine, prosecutors are looking into a complaint of sexual abuse of an underage boy by Bishop Walter Mixa of Augsburg, an outspoken conservative. Mixa denied the charges through a lawyer, the newspaper said.

The Diocese of Augsburg said in a statement that it had passed the new accusation to the prosecutor's office in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, according to guidelines established by the German Bishops' Conference in response to public outcry over the sexual abuse scandal.

The prosecutor's office in Ingolstadt confirmed Friday that a preliminary investigation was under way against Mixa, 69, but refused to give further details.

Accusation — Austria's cardinal says the former second-highest Vatican official blocked a probe into a sex abuse scandal 15 years ago. Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn also accused Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the retired Vatican secretary of state, of causing "massive harm" to victims when he dismissed claims of clerical abuse as "petty gossip" on Easter Sunday.

Schoenborn, a close confidant of Pope Benedict's, blamed Sodano for blocking an investigation of sex abuse allegations against the late Austrian Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer.

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