Germany has blamed a “wall of silence” created by the Vatican for hampering investigations into decades of abuse of schoolchildren by Catholic clergy.

Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, the Justice Minister, said that Vatican secrecy rules, including a 2001 directive requiring even the most serious cases to be investigated first by Church officials, were complicating efforts to shed light on claims of abuse at some of Germany’s most highly regarded schools.

Many of the alleged cases fall outside the 20-year statute of limitations, so abusers are protected from prosecution. Annette Schavan, the Education Minister, said that the limit on sex crimes involving children must be re-examined.

A string of sex-abuse claims have emerged since seven former pupils of the Canisius-Kolleg preparatory school in Berlin came forward in January claiming to have been abused.

Allegations were then made by former pupils at other schools including Aloisiuskolleg in Bonn, St Blasien, another Jesuit-run boarding school in the Black Forest, and Catholic schools in Hamburg, Göttingen and Hildesheim. Allegations about child molestation by Benedictine priests were made at the Ettal Monastery and St Ottilien boarding schools in Bavaria.

Reports emerged yesterday that up to 100 pupils at the non-Catholic Odenwald-schule, a private boarding school in Hesse, were regularly sexually abused.

Source/Full Story: Times Online