Cardinal Reinhard Marx
Photo: Edward Pentin
Archbishop of Munich and Freising, Germany
Dioceses/Religious Orders: Archdiocese of Paderborn, Diocese of Trier, Archdiocese of Munich and Freising
Marx failed to remove an accused priest from ministry after a 2006 allegation that the priest had sexually assaulted a 15-year-old boy. Although, according to Saarland public broadcaster SR, the priest had “partially confessed” to the crime, he was not charged due to the statute of limitations. Though Marx was informed of the investigation, he never requested the case files and closed the matter at the diocese, allowing the priest to continue to serve in his parish, going on overnight trips with youth.
The priest was finally removed in 2015 after subsequent legal investigations were launched and the diocese restricted him from public celebration of Mass and contact with minors.
In an earlier case in Trier, a diocesan employee reported to Marx in 2003 that she had been forced by the priest who impregnated her to get an abortion. The priest was suspended and reinstated. Another priest who further pressured her in the confessional to get an abortion was promoted according to Trier's Volksfreund newspaper. An investigation was initiated and never carried out.
The German bishops released a study in 2018 about the abuse of minors by clergy and religious in Germany. At a press conference presenting the study, Marx admitted the failures of the German church to handle abuse claims and deliver justice to victims, declaring that “the Catholic Church has by no means overcome the issue of dealing with the sexual abuse of minors.”
In May 2021, Marx sent Francis a letter of resignation as Archbishop of Munich due to his personal responsibility for mishandling abuse. Francis did not accept his resignation. Marx wrote, “I feel that through remaining silent, neglecting to act and over-focusing on the reputation of the Church I have made myself personally guilty and responsible.”
A 2022 report from the German legal firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl accused Marx of mishandling at least three cases in the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising.