Cardinal admits to Vatican summit that Catholic Church destroyed abuse files:
In a frank speech to the 190 cardinals, bishops and heads of
religious orders taking part in the four-day summit, German Cardinal
Reinhard Marx said the church's administration had left victims' rights
"trampled underfoot" and "made it impossible" for the worldwide
institution to fulfill its mission. "Files that could have documented the terrible deeds and named those
responsible were destroyed, or not even created," said Marx, beginning a
list of a number of practices that survivors have documented for years
but church officials have long kept under secret. ...
Marx's admission to the church's destruction of files may have
special significance in his native Germany, where an exhaustive
September 2018 report on abuse in the country detailed cases involving
3,677 children but said files in at least two dioceses had been changed
or destroyed. ... At a press briefing after his address Feb. 23, Marx clarified that he
was referring in his speech to the September 2018 German report on the
destruction of files. "I have absolutely no information as to other
cases," said the cardinal.
