Two priests, two bishops and the trauma of Karin W.
By Christiane Florin
This is a translated transcription of Christiane Florin’s program for the Deutschlandfunk (23.02.2021).
Karin Weißenfels*, an employee of the diocese of Trier, is expecting a child from a priest - and aborts. The priest and [another] clergyman, his friend, advised her to do so. The consequences for the priests are mild, the effects for the woman harsh. Bishops Reinhard Marx and Stephan Ackermann are involved in the case. A confrontation.
"I have been head of a diocese for 16 years now, first as bishop of Trier and for ten years archbishop of Munich. I feel shame when I look at the turning a blind eye of many who did not want to accept what happened, who trivialized and did not want to look or listen. I include myself in this. We have listened too little to the victims." That's what Reinhard Marx said in September 2018. The at-the-time head of the German Bishops' Conference presented a study on sexual abuse of children and young people in the Catholic Church.
Stephan Ackermann, abuse commissary of the Bishops' Conference and Marx's successor in Trier, is also publicly ashamed on the same occasion: "When I was appointed as commissary, the perspective for me was first and foremost: there are, so to speak, packages of tasks to be dealt with. And the longer I have been in charge, the more the perspective of those affected has entered my life, both existentially and emotionally, and with it the absolute disbelief and disgust at this crime," said Ackermann.
Priest advised abuse survivor to have an abortion
Karin Weißenfels is a survivor. She does not want to hear her voice on the radio, the name is a pseudonym. For more than 20 years, she has been a task in what Stephan Ackermann here calls the church's "package of tasks." She is said to have experienced abuse – as she describes it to Deutschlandfunk and as official letters suggest – not as a minor, but as a young woman. She was expecting a child from the priest of her parish - and she aborted. The priest and [another] clergyman, his friend, had advised the desperate woman to do so, even in a personal confession.
Karin Weißenfels is employed by the diocese of Trier. She knows personally both bishops, who have just been heard here. She has been on first-name terms with Stephan Ackermann for a long time. And the two bishops know her story. There are many letters to Karin Weißenfels with an episcopal seal and the typical signature with the cross in front of the name. Most recently, Marx and Ackermann were reminded of Karin Weißenfels earlier this month at the "Synodal Path" reform conference.
One of the synod's members, Regina Nagel of the Federal Association of Community Service Workers, publicly described Karin Weißenfels' accusations to the digitally assembled plenum on 4th February:
"Karin Weißenfels was sexually abused by her superior pastor for years. When she got pregnant, he demanded an abortion. Afterwards, she was to confess to a friend of his. Still pregnant, she asked this priest friend for help in confession. He told her that she had to have an abortion and gave her absolution in this confession. Until today this woman suffers from this abuse and of course also very much from this abortion. She is extremely burdened by the way those responsible handled her case. The confessional priest made a career. She herself is released from her service, is lonely and suffers."
Reinhard Marx and Stephan Ackermann, the former and current bishops of Trier, listen at the Synodal Forum on this February day. Video conference screens are too small to make emotion discernible. The two bishops "handled" the case as those responsible. They did not look the other way. They have acted - however - so it results from the correspondence, which is available to the Deutschlandfunk - only on the insistence of Ms. Weißenfels. They treated the church employee like a supplicant.
Regina Nagel sums it up like this: "In terms of church law, it's complicated; morally, it's just terrible."
Clemency for the clergy
For Karin Weißenfels, the Catholic Church was not only an employer, but also a home. Then this church became a crime scene. The feeling of home is gone. For decades she has pleaded, begged, fought for justice, for her history to be dealt with. Bishops, vicars general and chiefs of staff have read her letters, have sat in front of her. Clergymen have learned what two other clergymen did to her. They have believed her.
The unbelievable thing for Karin Weißenfels: the consequences for the clergy were mild. She, however, needed psychotherapies, needed legal and employment assistance. She has been on leave of absence for years. She wrote down the experiences from her point of view and gave herself this pseudonym for it: Karin Weißenfels.
Adults as victims of sexual violence
Is she a victim of sexual violence? Some people raise their eyebrows at this word. When "it" is said to have happened, she was 30 years old. "You weren't a child anymore. You could have defended yourself!" say the raised eyebrows. Adults as victims - this is a topic little noticed by the public. She had a psychotherapeutic expert opinion prepared; the expert diagnosed Karin Weißenfels with a "pathological emotional dependence" (on the priest).
Karin Weißenfels grows up in a Catholic family, is involved in the church. At 24, she gets her first job in the diocese of Trier. She and the priest were a good team, she writes. Six years later, a summer retreat changed everything for her. In a stressful situation, she bursts into tears in front of the priest. The churchman is also her supervisor. Apparently quite a caring boss, he asks her for a counseling session. Afterwards, she relates, he allegedly assaulted her with hugs and French kisses.
"I did not return his touches, but let it happen to me," she writes. The priest apparently asks her to his room in the evening, she goes. He is not only the boss for her, he is a spiritual authority. What is said to have happened then, she describes thus: "That same evening he asked me to come to his room in the evening, there he kissed and touched me even more intensely and let himself be aroused by it. Then he had an ejaculation. This changed his behavior from one second to the next. He sent me away without explanation. I didn't understand at that moment what had happened, I was completely sexually inexperienced."
Catholic image of women: accepting, remaining silent, being caring
The events described by Karin Weißenfels have not been established in detail by either an ecclesiastical or a secular court. The accusation of sexual violence remains unresolved. However, it is undisputed that there was a sexual relationship between Karin Weißenfels and the priest, who was more than 20 years older. And: that it did not remain only one time. The priest did not make a statement when asked by Deutschlandfunk.
In Karin Weißenfels' family, sexuality was taboo. A Catholic girl saves herself for marriage. That was true for her even when times became more liberal. Not an isolated case, says theologian Ute Leimgruber, who has studied adult victims of abuse, in a Deutschlandfunk interview: "Many of the affected women describe that they were brought up as good girls who, as girls, also have to accept what the authority says. It plays a role that in the Catholic image of women - as a doctrine - women are the ones who put up with, who are humble, who are silent as an ideal, who fit in, who are caring."
"He persuaded me that there was no other way."
That a priest could be her first man - this idea does not occur in the world view of the young church employee – until that summer retreat. A few months later, Karin Weißenfels realizes that she is pregnant – by her superior, the priest. She hopes that he will support her. But he advises abortion – according to Catholic doctrine an "abominable crime," a grave sin.
Karin Weißenfels misses an abortion appointment. She pretends to the priest that she has had the abortion. He advises her to confess to a priest friend. She confides in the other priest as instructed and confesses to him: "I wanted him to show me another way than abortion. But he told me that there was no other way: I had to have the abortion or I would be alone in the future," she writes. She went to the next abortion appointment. No one accompanies her.
Emotional, spiritual - and employment-wise dependent
Karin Weißenfels continues to work in the parish. Almost daily sexual contacts with the priest are said to have taken place even after the abortion. He had told her about his compulsive sexual addiction. She feels pity for him, at another point she calls it "intimate love." She dreams of a life together, of family. He remains a priest and wants to continue having sex with her, as Karin Weißenfels describes it. She is told to keep quiet about everything.
The word abuse is hardly used at that time. What happens between a priest and an adult woman in bed – that provides material for housekeeper jokes at parish meetings. But Karin Weißenfels is not the secret lover whose feelings are reciprocated. She's dependent, emotionally, spiritually – and employment-wise.
At the end of the 1990s, she approaches the diocese of Trier for the first time. In September 1999, there is a conversation with the then Bishop Hermann-Josef Spital. There were no consequences for the priests after this meeting.
Statements of the diocese
Upon request, the diocese of Trier confirms that this conversation took place, regarding the content it states: "However, we have no records of this on the part of the diocese."
In June 2001, Karin Weißenfels informs the diocese in writing for the first time. Again, nothing happens. In its statement to Deutschlandfunk, the diocese refers to the expertise of its own church judge: "His examination related to the accusations of abortion (can. 1398 CIC) and complicity (can 1329 §2 CIC) as well as abuse of office (can 1389 § 1 CIC); he came to the conclusion that the possible crimes are time-barred."
In April 2002 Reinhard Marx becomes bishop of Trier. Karin Weißenfels repeatedly asks the new bishop for an appointment. In May 2003, she writes: "Dear Bishop, for my healing process it is very important for me to talk to you personally about what I have disclosed to you."
Violation of canon law
Two months later, on July 15, 2003, Karin Weißenfels meets Reinhard Marx. She tells her story and hands over a detailed written account. He listens immobile, she remembers. At first, nothing happens again. Karin Weißenfels gets counselling in canon law. Only then does Marx react. He initiates an investigation, but only against her former superior, not against the confessional priest. When asked why both priests were not investigated, the diocese explains:
"From today's perspective, this is no longer comprehensible, and even the then Bishop Marx admitted a mistake in this regard in a letter to the Congregation for the Clergy in 2007. The reasons for not doing so were that, among other things, it was a matter of the difficult assessment of a confessional conversation, to which only Karin Weißenfels, but not the confessor, was allowed to be heard because of the absolute preservation of the secrecy of confession."
Under investigation, then, is whether the former chief advised abortion. Canon 1041 of the Canon Law CIC states: "Irregular for the reception of Holy Orders is:
4° who has intentionally killed a human being or performed a completed abortion, as well as all those who have positively participated in it."
According to CIC, even men who have already been ordained may not positively participate in an abortion. According to Can. 1044 and Can. 1041, irregularity is established for the priest. That is, he may not exercise his ordained ministry - but this disciplinary measure applies only for a short time. And this has to do with Rome.
Perpetrator granted pardon by Rome
The then Pope John Paul II and his Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith Joseph Ratzinger strongly condemned abortions. They speak of a "culture of death." At the end of the 1990s, the Church in Germany had to withdraw from abortion counseling at Rome's behest. But the Vatican is lenient with the Trier clergyman who advised his employee to abort his own child. The priest, who does not want to become a father, is granted Rome's fatherly care. He writes to Karin Weißenfels in September 2004 that the Vatican has pardoned him:
"In these days I have been informed that the Holy Father has granted my request for dispensation from irregularity according to Can. 1041 N. 4 CIC by a letter from the competent Congregation to Bishop Dr. Reinhard Marx. In June, after the conclusion of the episcopal investigation, I had addressed this request to the Holy Father at the request of Bishop Dr. Reinhard Marx."
Marx asks victim to "look forward"
Bishop Marx thus immediately advised the priest that he could ask for dispensation in Rome. Consequently, the irregularity is out of the world within three months. At the request of Deutschlandfunk, the diocese of Trier confirms this account:
"It is true that the then Bishop Marx gave the indication of the possibility of a dispensation by Rome, because such indications belong to the legal channels for information and legal instruction."
Initially, the diocese did not find any references to sexual violence. In a July 2005 letter to Ms. Weißenfels, Marx announces he will also look into accusations of sexual violence. He writes: "I very much hope that you know how much I understand what you feel. But I also sincerely ask you to look forward, as far as you can."
Two months later, Reinhard Marx informs us that he can no longer do anything in terms of canon law. "In view of this legal situation, I would like to ask you once again ... urgently to finally detach yourself from the past and the emotional ties to pastors [...] and to look ahead."
Diocese leadership sees “no fault”
When Karin Weißenfels writes to the vicar general that the priest has her "under his power," an ecclesiastical investigation is initiated in November 2005. She is to testify as a witness. Karin Weißenfels does not feel psychologically able to endure an interrogation.
The diocese is not taking any further action against the priest who, despite his celibacy, is said to have wanted to have sex with his employee almost every day. Karin Weißenfels is supposed to become active. The bishop advised her to detach herself and look ahead. She does indeed show a willingness to forgive. When Reinhard Marx learns of this from her, he lets her know in a handwritten message with bishop's letterhead on February 22, 2006:
"I was pleased to receive your letter, especially that forgiveness and pardon become possible."
In April 2006, Karin Weißenfels forgave her priest in an official ceremony, a service of the word, according to a transcript. According to the diocese, acceptance of the apology also led to the case being dropped.
"Neither cost nor effort spared"
At the end of June 2006, an employee of the personnel department lists in a letter everything the diocese had done for Karin Weißenfels, how many jobs they had offered her, how much money they had paid. "The documentation of the course of the past five years shows ... that the diocese's personnel officers have spared neither expense nor effort in showing you sincere sympathy and understanding in your personal situation..."
The entire sentence is eight lines long. At the end, it is emphasized that the Diocese of Trier extends this sympathy to her, "without even one of the persons responsible or the institution of the Episcopal General Vicariate being at fault."
No fault. Karin Weißenfels does not accept the self-absolution of the diocese leadership. She is now seeking canon law proceedings against the priest who advised her to have an abortion in confession. The diocese investigates the case and interrogates her in August 2006. 38 pages of minutes record her testimony, which reads like an interrogation.
Confessor makes a career
The diocese believes her - and also declares to this priest that he is not allowed to exercise his ministry. Again, irregularity is determined - and again, a few months later, there is a dispensation, i.e. grace, from Rome. The diocese takes no further disciplinary action against this priest either. He retains the authority to hear confessions.
The clergyman makes a career. He is considered a theological star, eligible for higher ordinations.
Stephan Ackermann becomes bishop in 2009. Karin Weißenfels has known him for decades, rather superficially, as Ackermann writes today to Deutschlandfunk. She congratulates him on his appointment and asks if she can be present at his inauguration. He kindly thanks her by email and notes: "As a rule, on such 'thick festive occasions' for ecclesiastically wounded people, there is a danger that old wounds will reopen ..."
In July 2009, he lets her know the diocese continues to pay therapy costs and salary.
"From all this, you can see that the diocese has done everything necessary to give you a secure existence."
Ackermann apologizes, but takes no further action against perpetrators
Half a year later, in January 2010, the abuse scandal year begins. Stephan Ackermann is one of the youngest in office at the time. He gets the job that no one is vying for: he becomes the abuse commissioner of the German Bishops' Conference. In May 2010, he apologized in a letter to Karin Weißenfels, not only as an acquaintance from youth days, but explicitly as Bishop of Trier for the ... "tormenting injustice done to you by priests and leaders of the diocese of Trier."
He wishes his diocesan employees "firmer ground" under their feet again. Further disciplinary measures against the two priests he also does not take. To Deutschlandfunk, Stephan Ackermann confirmed that he did not take further action under church law. His reasoning:
"The proceedings against the aforementioned priests had already been concluded in 2004 by decision of the Congregation for the Clergy and in 2007 by decision of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, respectively."
Pope Benedict prays for her
Karin Weißenfels turns to Benedict XVI, the German pope, who presents himself as an enlightener. His Secretariat of State responds in October 2012:
"The Holy Father considers it an urgent concern of the Church toward you to bind up, as far as possible, the internal wounds and to promote reconciliation."
The documents relating to her case would be re-examined in Rome. And, he said, the pope includes her in his prayers. But being prayed for is not enough for her. She wants her confessor to be held accountable, to repent. In May 2013, Karin Weißenfels, the Bishop of Trier, Stephan Ackermann, and that clergyman had a conversation. But the sign of repentance remains absent.
Stephan Ackermann advises against further canonical steps with the Apostolic See. He doubts personally, he wrote to her in October 2013 in an email, that it would bring her further "...in the progress that you have been allowed to make in the past years in the reconciliation".
Karin W. wants consequences for perpetrators
She also wants reconciliation but by that she means something different than the bishop. First of all, she wants recognizable consequences for the confessor. For her, this also means: the diocesan leadership should take responsibility for what she sees as perpetrator-protective behavior.
On December 19, 2016, there is a personal conversation between Karin Weißenfels and Stephan Ackermann. After dozens of letters and emails, there is hardly anything left of the trusting relationship with "dear Stephan". The meeting ends in conflict. It is the last personal contact.
Years pass. Finally, in June 2019, Karin Weißenfels turns to the Archdiocese of Cologne with the help of her lawyer. Rainer Maria Woelki is metropolitan, i.e. superior to the bishop of Trier. At the end of December 2020, Cologne's top church lawyer tells her: "From the material presented, it is not apparent to us that there has been a protection of perpetrators on the part of leaders in the diocese of Trier."
The papal decree against cover-ups from 2019 does not apply here, he said.
The priest who advised Karin Weißenfels in confession to terminate the pregnancy has since died, highly decorated with ecclesiastical and academic titles. The priest from whom Karin Weißenfels was expecting a child is still alive.
Do Marx and Ackermann have anything to blame themselves for?
She continues to fight. She has objected to the Cologne decision, and a lawyer is supporting her. She wants to get away from the church, but first she wants justice.
Do Marx and Ackermann have anything to reproach themselves for? When asked by Deutschlandfunk, Reinhard Marx explains that spiritual abuse of adults was not on his mind at the time; today he is more sensitive: "Thus, I now see that the canon law perspective has limits and alone cannot always do justice to the different dimensions of a case. For this reason, it is becoming increasingly important to involve independent experts and to pose the question of possible reappraisal and healing more comprehensively. My colleagues in the diocese of Trier and I have tried to help KW and also to develop professional perspectives with her. I am very sorry to learn that KW is still burdened today."
Stephan Ackermann explains: "In the past twelve years (and even before that), there were a number of attempts to enable a professional re-entry. On several occasions, I have personally campaigned for this. Unfortunately, the many efforts were not of lasting success. Karin Weißenfels and her story have been with me since I took office. There is hardly any other case in which I have come so close to the limits of the law, the people involved and my possibilities."
The diocesan leadership did what was "possible," what was "necessary," it took an interest, spared no expense or effort, the letters say.
A systemic scandal
"We have not listened enough to the victims," said Reinhard Marx in September 2018.
Karin Weißenfels was listened to and yet she was overheard. Hierarchs responded only when pressured. Affected people like her are a burden, annoying, put off, lectured, told to be quiet, to look forward, to forgive, to be grateful for every conversation, every letter, every euro. The bishop knows what helps them. The bishop knows what justice is. The bishop knows what reconciliation is. The bishop knows when it is also good.
When a woman decides to have an abortion, she commits a grave sin. When priests advise a woman to have an abortion, there is mercy from Rome. Mother Church has been paternal toward ordained men. They have been spared possible consequences. The traumatized woman bears the harsh consequences.
What happened is morally terrible - and apparently lawful. That is the systemic scandal.
*Name is a pseudonym.
[i] Cf. Address of Cardinal Grech to the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference, 4 March 2021.
[ii]Cf. International Theological Commission, Synodality in the Life and Mission of the Church, 6, https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_documents/rc_cti_20180302
_sinodalita_en.html
[iii] Pope Francis, address on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Synod of Bishops, 17 October 2015, https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2015/october/documents/papa-francesco_20151017_50-anniversario-sinodo.html
[iv] International Theological Commission, Synodality in the Life and Mission of the Church, 5 https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_documents/rc_cti_20180302_sinodalita_en.html
[v] Pope Francis – Austen Ivereigh, Let us Dream, The path to a better future, 84.
[vi] Cardinal Mario Grech, Address to the Irish bishops on Synodality, 3rd February 2021, https://www.catholicbishops.ie/2021/03/04/address-of-cardinal-mario-grech-to-the-bishops-of-ireland-on-synodality-2/
[vii] Pope Francis – Austen Ivereigh, Let us Dream, The path to a better future, 84.
[viii] Pope Francis, Lettera del Santo Padre Francesco al popolo di Dio che è in cammino in Germania, 29 June 2019.
[ix] Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti 22.
[x] Can. 212§1
[xi] Can. 209§1
[xii] T. Reese, “Three ways to improve the Synod of Bishops”, National Catholic Reporter, 12 November 2015, https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/faith-and-justice/three-ways-improve-synod-bishops
[xiii] Pope Francis, interview in America Magazine, September 2013. https://www.americamagazine.org/pope-francis-interview.
[xiv] For example The Root and Branch Synod Bristol, UK, 5-12 September 2021.
