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Bonn / Cologne (dpa) - The criminologist Christian Pfeiffer has described the criticism of the Cologne Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki as "lying".

He was thinking in particular of the former chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, Reinhard Marx, Pfeiffer told the German press agency.

The Munich cardinal had described it as "devastating" that Woelki kept an expert opinion on how Catholic clergymen dealt with allegations of sexual abuse of children and young people under lock and key.

"That is such a mendacious way of dealing with Woelki," criticized the former SPD Justice Minister of Lower Saxony.

"If Marx attacks Woelki now, then it's sitting in a glass house and throwing stones because he did the same."

Marx opposed independent investigations in his diocese for years because he was afraid that cover-ups by the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, could come out.

"Marx is the main culprit for the fact that ten years after the abuse issue was discovered we still have no transparency," said Pfeiffer.

"Bishops still do not need to take responsibility for protecting offenders and neglecting victims."

In 2013, the Bishops' Conference terminated a processing contract with the Lower Saxony Criminological Research Institute headed by Pfeiffer.

The dispute was sparked by the publication of internal church documents.

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The German Bishops' Conference closes its spring plenary assembly on Thursday.

The meeting was overshadowed by the crisis in the diocese of Cologne.

Woelki cites legal concerns for withholding the expertise he has commissioned.

He wants to publish a new report in mid-March.

Pfeiffer blamed Catholic sexual morality for the high rates of abuse in the first post-war decades.

For example, a large US study for the 1960s identified eight percent of all priests in the US as accused of abuse.

30 years later that was only 0.5 percent.

This decline can be explained by the change in sexual morality and criminal law.

«In the 1960s, because of their celibacy, the priests had little chance of sexual contact with women.

And if they were gay, criminal law threatened them, ”said Pfeiffer.

That is why many priests turned to minors, even if they were not actually pedophiles.

That changed with the relaxation of sexual morality.

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"Today priests can go to gay bars or get to know a woman at a party without having to fear penalties or disadvantages."

In 2011, in a study of 500 identified abuse victims, only one person indicated a priest as the perpetrator.

"Now only the really pedophiles remain," said Pfeiffer.

"And their percentage should not be higher among priests than in other areas of society."

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210225-99-583685 / 2