For decades, German dioceses have sent Catholic priests to Latin America for pastoral care who had sexually abused minors in Germany.

Those responsible for the church at the new location were generally not informed about pending criminal proceedings, church sanctions or allegations and in some cases were even deliberately deceived.

This is the result of a report published on Monday by the German Bishops' Conference and the Catholic Latin America aid organization Adveniat.

Thomas Jansen

Editor in Politics.

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The focus here is on the former Adveniat general manager Emil Stehle (1926 to 2017), who was later auxiliary bishop of Quito and bishop of Santo Domingo in Ecuador.

According to the report, he helped priests, against whom criminal proceedings were pending in Germany because of sexualized violence, to evade the access of the judiciary in Latin America.

Covert work in Latin America

Stehle, who headed Adveniat from 1977 to 1988, ensured in at least three cases that clergymen could work covertly in Latin America through name coding, camouflage addresses and maintenance assistance.

In two cases, the priests were wanted for sexual offenses against minors, in one case the allegation could not be found in the files.

Stehle himself is also heavily burdened by the opinion of the Cologne lawyer Bettina Janssen.

In total, she cites 16 reports and references to abusive behavior and sexual abuse of minors.

Those affected also include a woman who may have been fathered by Stehle himself.

Under the Latin name "Fidei Donum" - in English "gift of faith" - about 400 priests have been sent from Germany to Latin America since the 1960s.

From 1972 to 1984, the clergyman Stehle, who came from the Archdiocese of Freiburg, was head of the "Fidei Donum" coordination office.

After Stehle's departure in 1984, according to the report, no intention to cover up could be proven in a further eight cases, but the coordination office and the dioceses acted only "reactively" and insufficiently.

Those affected were not taken into account.

Little interest in enlightenment

According to the expert's findings, until recently, Adveniat and the German dioceses did little to address sexual abuse among the "Fidei Donum" priests.

The publication of the abuse study by the German Bishops' Conference in September 2018 was considered in a six-page newsletter with only four sentences: "Perhaps you have heard that a scientific study on the extent of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in Germany since 1945 has recently been published ' was the first sentence quoted in the report.

Even at a six-day "Fidei Donum" meeting in Buenos Aires in April 2022, the topic was not on the agenda and was only briefly addressed by Adveniat CEO Martin Maier.

According to a press release, the general secretary of the German Bishops' Conference, Beate Gilles, stated that the report makes it clear "that the deployment of priests and meanwhile also other pastoral employees must be critically reflected on as a whole".

According to the general secretary of the bishops' conference, proof must be required in the future that the persons intended for posting "have no prior history of sexual assault" and have completed mandatory prevention training.

Adveniat Managing Director Maier is quoted as saying: "The suffering inflicted on the victims of sexualized violence and abuse of power shocks us deeply and we apologize." The Catholic aid organization represents "the position of absolute zero tolerance towards the crimes of sexual abuse” and stand by the side of those affected in Germany and Latin America – “also with this relentless investigation”.