Abuse in Admont Abbey: Cardinal Schönborn as "accessory"?

Christoph Kardinal Schönborn auf dem Bruder-Ko...Image via Wikipedia
Missbrauch in Admont: Schönborn als "Mitwisser"? « DiePresse.com:


The Klasnic Commission (the church established commission investigating sexual abuse) rejected a compensation claim for a student of Admont, although there are witnesses and a confession which has now been taken back. Critics accuse the Church of cover-up.

An abuse charge against Admont now brings trouble for the Klasnic Commission: Although there are witnesses and a confession which has now been taken back, the Commission has rejected compensation for an alleged abuse victim, reports the Ö1 Morning Journal. The criteria for compensation are unclear, critics say.

A now 57-year-old who wants to remain anonymous says that, as a teenager at the boarding school, he was severely beaten and seriously injuredby two Fathers of Admont Abbey. He was raped, flogged and beaten unconscious, forced to have cold showers and to stand on a cold stone floor. He suffered permanent hearing damage among other problems. The man turned to the Klasnic Commission, which established a causal relationship "between the sexual assault suffered and the psychological consequences described." However, there was no money.

The alleged victim found the decision incomprehensible. A witness confirmed the allegations to Ö1, as well as the medical and psychiatric reports. One of the accused priests had admitted to the news magazine "profil", in March 2010, to be "the man responsible for the hearing impairment" . "I suffer, must live with it and ask for forgiveness." Later he would revoke his confession.

"Complicity and inaction"

The Platform of the Victims of Ecclesiastical Abuse raises serious allegations against Cardinal Schönborn and the Bishop of the Diocese of Graz-Seckau, Egon Kapellari, accusing them of "complicity and inaction". Schönborn and Kapellari were informed in 2010 about the priest, but he was not dismissed. The Klasnic Commission is just "another instrument of the Church cover-up".

The Abbey contests the Ö1 report about the sexual assault and speaks only of a single slap. The Klasnic Commission has stated that it had examined the case several timesand rejected it.

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