The Catholic Diocese of Münster in western Germany will become the first diocese worldwide to introduce an arbitration council and a disciplinary code for clergy beginning on March 1, Bishop Felix Genn announced on Friday.
Genn said the new disciplinary structures are his response to a 2022 report on decades of sexual abuse in the diocese.
At the time, Genn announced that there would be consequences for the failings uncovered in the report and that he intended to relinquish his power over discipline and instead submit decisions to independent supervisory bodies.
The report had placed part of the blame on the structures within the diocese, and the role played by Catholic officials in charge of lower-ranking clergy, such as bishops and vicars general.
The diocese announced that breaches of official duties could now be punished in an orderly manner, in roughly the same way that civil servants can face discipline under German law.
Genn had previously informed the relevant committees of the diocese about the arbitration council and the disciplinary regulations.
Two experts in Catholic canon law, Thomas Schüller and Thomas Neumann, drew up the new regulations. Both serve on the theology faculty at the University of Münster.
“Many of the perpetrators know exactly how to stay just below the threshold of criminal acts. But even minor abuses have consequences for those affected,” Schüller, a professor of canon law, told dpa.
With the new Münster disciplinary rules, repeat offenders could now be ordered “to no longer work in pastoral care,” he said. “It is also possible that priests will have to contribute to the costs of therapy. The pension of older priests can be reduced.”
