Rome, Italy, Jul 9, 2010 / 18:55 pm
The Benedictine abbey in Ettal, Germany has announced that the Vatican has cleared two monks who were asked to resign from their positions over the reporting of a sexual abuse allegation. A personal letter from Cardinal Franc Rodé states that his dicastery has found no reason that the two men could not be re-elected to their former positions.
In February, Archbishop Reinhard Marx of the archdiocese of Munich-Friesing asked Benedictine Abbott Barnabus Bögle of the Ettal Abbey and Prior Maurus Kraß of the abbey’s school to resign, according to the German paper Die Welt.
Archbishop Marx said that the men had failed to follow archdiocesan guidelines to properly report an incident of sexual abuse that occurred at the school in 2005. The incident pertained to a priest who comforted a crying boy by rubbing his back and massaging him under this t-shirt.
Die Welt also reported that the school had a previous history of abuse problems, though neither Abbot Barnabus nor Prior Maurus were in positions of authority during that time.