Church is incapable of cleaning up abuse mess on its own, says former Munich archdiocesan official

Published Feb. 3, 2022.

A former top official in one of the world's wealthiest Catholic dioceses says he quit his key post two years ago because of internal opposition to his efforts to clean up clergy sex abuse.

Mgr. Peter Beer, who served from 2010-2020 as vicar general of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, said the horrific details that emerged from a recently published report on sex abuse in the archdiocese are “absolutely plausible".

"It objectively documents what everyone feared and what I myself experienced – namely that the Church cannot reappraise itself. That is my own, bitter experience," the 56-year-old priest said in a full-page interview published January 27 in the German weekly Die Zeit.

"That is why I gave up my job as vicar-general of Munich two years ago. The opposition I faced was too great even for a vicar general,” he revealed. 

The so-called Munich Report, which was published January 20, exonerated Beer and proved he was strictly against abuse, confirming that his efforts were met with "bitter opposition".   

From vicar general in Munich to university professor in Rome 

Beer told Die Zeit it came from all those who felt they were superior to the rest of society, who were used to judging others without ever being judged themselves, and who were frightened that their life’s work would be destroyed. 

He said opposition also from those who suffered from the delusion that they were surrounded by enemies of the Church and from those who were on the one hand mutually blackmailable but at the same thought they were unassailable. 

After stepping down as vicar general in 2020, Beer left Munich of his own will and is now at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome where he teaches at the Institute of Anthropology, Interdisciplinary Studies on Human Dignity and Care (IADC), the university's safe-guarding institute.

He served as vicar general under Cardinal Reinhard Marx during the first ten years of the Catholic sexual abuse tsunami that has swept through the German speaking world. 

And although he was fiercely opposed by a number of senior clerics in Munich for speaking out, Beer does not consider himself a victim of the system.

“No! I am in no way a victim! On the contrary, I am responsible!” he replied. 

But he said he now realizes that it was naïve to think that the Church could clear up clerical sexual abuse all by itself. 

"Why don't you ask Cardinal Marx, yourself?"

He said the Munich Report, which proved that certain senior clerics had failed to protect the victims, “is unfortunately not only a glimpse into the past but also into the present”.

Asked if Cardinal Marx really wanted to clear up the way abuse had been handled in his archdiocese – especially as he chose not to be present at the presentation of the report --, Beer paused for a long moment.

“Why don’t you ask him yourself?” he then replied.

The Munich Report also accused Benedict XVI of hushing up abuse, but the former pope contradicted the accusation. Beer was asked which version is correct. 

“Only Benedict himself has the answer to that,” he replied.

Many of those who the report has accused of hushing up abuse are now silent or pointing out that they were not responsible at the time. 

When asked why he, on the other hand, was willing to talk, Beer said the Church owed that to the victims.  

He said they have a right to a genuine counterpart, a real face in front of them and not just an anonymous apparatus.

"Criticism will not harm us" 

The Bavarian priest said he no longer wears a priestly garb because the mere sight of a plain black shirt and clerical collar is still “simply unbearable” for many survivors of clergy sex abuse. 

And he criticized the Church for being a haven for clerics who are socially awkward.

“The Church must not remain a sheltered environment for priests who are afraid of life, afraid of sexuality, afraid of closeness and of responsibility," he said. "It must learn to understand that criticism will not harm us. It is the condition for a new beginning.”

Mgr Beer said he could easily understand why so many people were leaving the Church.

“I myself do not intend to leave but sometimes there are dark hours when I ask myself whether it was a mistake to become a priest," he confessed. 

"I was ordained late and with my decision to become a priest I have hurt others. There are times when I doubt whether it was worth it," he continued. 

"I am still a member of the Munich cathedral chapter and have thought about sending back my letter of appointment and chapter cross. I am torn back and forth and still undecided,” the former vicar general admitted.

He said what most comforts him now is helping others, pointing out that priests should be joyful and full of hope. 

Beer added that it would be better if priests would just “stop uttering empty phrases expressing their great concern for the victims”.

Christa Pongratz-Lippitt writes from Vienna where she has spent many years as a reporter and commentator on Church affairs in the German-speaking world.