A petition in Germany with over 100,000 signatures is calling on the Catholic Church to stop invoking the statute of limitations in compensation cases brought by victims of abuse.
The petition was announced by the victims’ initiative Eckiger Tisch (Square Table), according to a statement released on Monday before the start of the autumn plenary assembly of the German Bishops’ Conference in the city of Fulda.
The group’s co-founder, Matthias Katsch, stated, “The Catholic Church must no longer invoke the statute of limitations in compensation cases.
In response to revelations of widespread abuse of children and young people by priests, especially in the early post-war decades.
The Catholic Church set up a system of voluntary so-called recognition payments.
Under this, an independent commission grants funds to victims without them having to provide actual evidence of abuse.
There is broad criticism that the amounts paid are insufficient, and in individual cases, higher six-figure sums were won in court.
However, many lawsuits never even get off the ground because the Church invokes the statute of limitations.
According to victims’ initiatives, this is particularly unfair because the Church, by its own admission, often covered up the crimes for many years.
