In Germany, the Protestant Church has published an independent study carried out by academics into sexual violence committed within it. According to an estimate made public this Thursday, 9,355 minors could have been sexually abused.
Researchers, who have been investigating the scandal since 2020, say there is evidence that the real number of victims could be around 10,000. These revelations come several years after an investigation into the German Catholic Church revealed equally shocking figures on sexual abuse committed by members of the clergy.
According to an independent report published this Thursday, at least 1,259 people working for the German Protestant Church committed sexual abuse over the last decades and at least 2,225 victims were affected by these abuses.
These figures are based on the study of documents and records from regional churches and the diaconal Lutheran relief and welfare organization, known as Diakonie.
However, the report’s authors calculated that the actual number of perpetrators within the Church is much higher, with probably at least 3,497 people having committed sexual abusereported the German news agency DPA.
“This is the tip of the iceberg” said Martin Wazlawik of the University of Hannover, who coordinated the study on sexual violence within the Protestant Church in Germany.
The Protestant church commissioned this study in 2020, with the aim of analyzing structures within the church that promote violence and abuse of power. The Church financed the study to the tune of 3.6 million euros.
As an umbrella organization of 20 regional churchesthe EKD represents 19.2 million Protestant Christians in Germany.
The authors said they were not able to analyze the personal files of all church pastors and deacons, but mainly disciplinary files, the DPA news agency reported.
During the presentation of the study in Hanover, the head of the Council of the Protestant Church in Germanyalso known as EKD, apologized to the victims “With all my heart”.
“As an institution, we have also been guilty of countless crimes against countless people“, declared the Bishop of Hamburg, Kirsten Fehrsadding that she was “deeply shocked” by the general picture presented by the study
This report comes several years after Catholic Church Germany has published staggering figures on sexual abuse committed by its clergy.
In 2018a report commissioned by the Church concluded that at least 3,677 people had been abused by Catholic clergy in Germany between 1946 and 2014. More than half of the victims were 13 years old or younger, and almost a third of them were altar boys.