At least 20 students were sexually abused by two Jesuit priests who taught them at one of Germany's most prestigious high schools, its director said Monday.
That is much higher than the seven sexual abuse cases by the two priests in the s and s that Berlin's private Catholic Canisius Kolleg had acknowledged last month. Father Stefan Dartmann, the head of the Jesuit order of Germany, also said the two priests continued to sexually abuse boys and girls after being transferred from Canisius Kollege to other Catholic schools and youth institutions in Germany, Mexico, Chile and Spain.
Canisius Kolleg is one of Germany's pre-eminent schools, the alma mater of many politicians, businesspeople and scientists. The scandal also has become big news in Germany because this country has not seen the kind of major sexual abuse scandals involving the Roman Catholic church that the United States and Ireland have. First cases reported last week Father Klaus Mertes, the director of Canisius Kolleg, told Monday's news conference that after he sent letters to alumni of the school last month, more students reported suffering sexual abuse by Fathers Peter Riedel and Wolfgang Stab, who taught at the school in the s and s.
Mertes had reported the first seven abuse cases last week. Dartmann conceded that the Jesuit order of Germany had evidence of the sexual abuse cases since , but had never informed parents, students or authorities. Such cases can no longer be prosecuted in Germany because of its statute of limitations, he said.
While Riedel forced his students to masturbate, Stab exercised "excessive corporal rituals" in a sexual context, said Dartmann. Both men later left the order and Stab has admitted the sexual abuse. He now lives in Chile and has sent a letter to some of the victims to apologize.
