Prestigious German Catholic school reports sexual abuse of students by Jesuit fathers

Elite German school reports sexual abuse cases

BERLIN — Several students at one of Germany’s most prestigious high schools were sexually abused for many years by their teachers, the school’s director said Thursday.

Father Klaus Mertes says he has sent out 500 letters to alumni of Berlin’s private Catholic Canisius Kolleg to determine the extent of the case after seven ex-students recently reported they were abused in the 1970s and 1980s.

Canisius Kolleg is one of Germany’s pre-eminent schools, alma mater of many politicians, businesspeople and scientists.

Mertes said Thursday that the seven, and likely many more, were abused by two ex-teachers who were members of the Jesuit order.

“I’m deeply shocked and ashamed about these appalling assaults, which are not just single incidents, but took place systematically and over several years,” Mertes wrote in his letter to the school’s alumni.

At a press conference at the local archdiocese’s office, Mertes said the school had been guilty of looking the other way when the abuse cases happened.

He said the letter was an apology and a signal to other possible victims to come forward.

Mertes said the two Jesuit fathers taught at the school for eight years before leaving in the late 1980s.

They are no longer members of the Jesuit order, but after the allegations surfaced earlier this month, they were contacted by its independent counselor for sexual abuse victims.

“We are currently communicating with them,” counselor Ursula Raue said. She declined to elaborate.

Raue also told The Associated Press that several other alumni responded to the letter and told her they had been victims of sexual abuse, but she did not want to specify how many more cases that involved.

The ex-students first got in touch with the school after discussing the abuse with each other, Mertes said. It was unclear whether they planned to take legal action.

All the victims were male and most were about 13 when the abuse started, Mertes said. They are around 40 now.

He added that he had promised the victims not to make public details of the abuse.

Canisius Kolleg was founded as an all-boys school and turned coed in the late 1970s.

Germany, unlike the U.S. and Ireland in particular, hasn’t seen major abuse scandals in its Roman Catholic church.