Germany's top cardinal has
offered his resignation to Pope Francis saying he wanted to take
personal responsibility for the sex abuse scandals that have
rocked the German Church, according to a letter dated May 21
made public by his office Friday, the DPA news agency reported.
In the letter, Munich Cardinal Reinhard Marx said he Church had
come to a "dead point".
Marx said "the heart of the matter is to assume
co-responsibility for the catastrophe of sexual abuse committed
by Church officials in the past decades."
He said investigations
into past crimes had highlighted "many personal failures and
administrative errors, but also institutional and systemic
failures".
Vatican inspectors are expected to report on abuse in the Munich
archbishopric by the end of the summer.
The global Catholic Church has been roiled by clerical sex abuse
over the past few decades.
Francis has repeatedly vowed a zero tolerance policy on abuse
and cover-ups, but some victims of predator priests say he has
not gone far enough.
This week the pope promulgated a reform of Vatican penal law
making lay members liable to prosecution for abuse too.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
