There was great outrage when calculations circulated in autumn 2018 that 100,000 citizens had experienced sexual violence in the area of the church.
The Protestant Church did not and does not want to have anything to do with the subject of abuse, and in the Catholic Church between 1946 and 2014 just 3,700 victims of abuse were on record.
Now it is a truism that the dark field in such a shameful crime is many times larger than the bright field.
But by how much?
To protect the most vulnerable
The researchers, who presented a study on the diocese of Münster on Monday, expect eight to ten times the official church figures.
But even this estimate would still be a long way from the 100,000 and certainly from the 330,000 victims calculated for the Catholic Church in France.
Only a methodologically comprehensive dark field study can bring light into this darkness.
But up until now, this has not been desired anywhere.
Not only the churches shy away from looking in the mirror, but also sports officials, ministers of education and family politicians.
Because until the opposite is proven, sexual violence only takes place to a small extent in the area of the churches.
For the sake of the weakest, it is high time we stopped denying this fact.
The real numbers belong on the table.