In light of the summit dedicated to how the Church prevents and investigates abuse, RTL was contacted by a man who experienced sexual abuse in a Catholic boarding school. His experiences go back to a boy's boarding school in the sixties and the victim had documents to prove his experience.
The now-sixty-year-old victim explained that whenever the topic of sexual abuse in the Church comes up again in the media, his memories come back to him. He followed reporting on the summit closely and explained that Pope Francis' conclusions were not satisfactory.
In an interview with RTL, he spoke of how the memories seem to play in front of his eyes like a film. Normally, the nun would teach classes, but was indisposed on one occasion. The victim said that the priest of the monastery then came to hold the class. Once class was finished, he let the other kids leave and told the victim to stay behind. Once the other boys had left, the priest told the victim to pull down his trousers. He listened to the priest, but then the nun came into the room and told him to get dressed and proceeded to yell at the priest.
When a Church hotline was created in Luxembourg, he never reported the case. He explained that the Church should have made a hotline including neutral parties. He regrets not having said something earlier, but explained that he needed to process the events. As a child, you take up the guilt and it takes decades to realise what the adult did was wrong.
With the news of the summit so recent, this led to the question of how many cases were reported to the Church's hotline in Luxembourg between 2011 and 2018. Further to that, what did the Church do to both protect victims and prevent further instances of sexual abuse?
These questions were addressed at a press conference on Thursday, where both the Archbishop of Luxembourg and general vicar were present.
The general vicar Leo Wagener told RTL Background in mid-February that the Church would be making information public as a consequence of the report written by the late CSV politician Mill Majerus and his wife in 2010.
The Majerus' report claimed that 138 people had called and reported 39 cases of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in Luxembourg. The report also provided various recommendations on a number of levels.
One recommendation made by Majerus was to improve laws, which has yet to happen. The statute of limitations remains at 10 years. The report also highlighted that it is insufficient to simply put abusers in prison. Instead the report recommended working with the abusers to treat them. However, the Ombuds committee for children's rights has deplored that ten years later, nothing has happened.
There have been changes in terms of diagnosing and treating traumatised children. The association of social pediatry (Alupse) has worked hard on the issue and highed a social pediatrician.
