GERMANY Anti-Semitism on the rise in Germany Christa Pongratz-Lippitt


A REPORT on anti-Semitism in Germany finds that anti-Jewish attitudes in the country are reaching “worrying” levels. The report, commissioned by the German


Government in 2009, was compiled by a group of independent experts and has now


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ROME Sex-abuse prosecutor demands accountability


A TOPVatican official has hinted that the sex- ual abuse of children by priests will never be stopped until church authorities become more accountable for the way they deal with such abuse cases, writes Robert Mickens. “No strategy for the prevention of child abuse will ever work without commitment and accountability,” said Mgr Charles Scicluna on 3 November at an international forum held at the Italian Senate. But the Maltese priest, the Vatican’s chief prosecutor of clergy sex-abuse cases, did not offer any suggestions on how this accountability could be enforced. In his talk at a conference sponsored by the Mayo Clinic and a US organisation specialising in abuse prevention, he merely quoted part of a message to Irish Catholics last year in which Pope Benedict XVI “exhorted” bishops


to handle abuse cases with “complete honesty and transparency”. Mgr Scicluna said that while ecclesial lead- ers were rightly worried about the devastating effect of clergy sex abuse on the credibility of the Church and the priesthood, their over- riding concern had to be the “indescribably repugnant damage done to the child”. “Any institution … seeking to develop a strategy for the protection of children … must enshrine pre-eminently the principle that the well- being of the child should be the paramount concern of all,” he said. The CDF official said the Church still had a “great deal to learn from psychology, soci- ology and the forensic sciences”. (See News from Britain and Ireland, page 35.)


BRAZIL Anti-corruption drive wins broad backing


IN A MOVEthat is being seen as an attempt to stiffen the resolve of President Dilma Rousseff as she struggles to abide by her elec- tion pledge to clean up corruption in Brazilian political life, the country’s bishops have issued a statement saying that corruption is still hav- ing a corrosive effect on the Government, writes Jon Stibbs. The bishops’ statement issued at the end of October urged that “polit- ical reforms” be implemented “in order to fight the corruption that is corroding the insti- tutions of the Brazilian state”. “Those who are guilty must be investigated


and brought to justice. If a person is innocent, his good name and standing in society should


32 | THE TABLET | 12 November 2011


be regained, but when a person’s guilt is proven, he or she should be punished,” the bishops said. Since Ms Rousseff came to power on 1 January, five members of her Government have been forced to resign over allegations of corruption, and the president’s uncompro- mising attitude to the misdeeds of colleagues has won popular approval. The Church has consistently sought to shed light on the issue. In September, the chairman of the Brazilian bishops’ conference (CNBB), Bishop Leonardo Steiner, said: “We feel great concern not only because of corruption but rather because of impunity.” The CNBB backed recent anti-corruption demonstrations.


been presented to the Bundestag. Anti- Semitism is “extensively” rooted in German society, the report says. There are definite signs that there is no longer a taboo on anti- Jewish expression in the public sphere as has been the case in Germany since the Second World War, the report says. “Daily anti-Jewish tirades and practices have become a habit and now reach right up into the middle of German society,” it says. Anti-Semitic attitudes were based on exten- sive prejudice, deeply rooted clichés and simply because people knew nothing about Jews or Judaism, the report explained. Around 20 per cent of Germans were “latently” anti- Semitic, it said, adding: “It must be emphasised that Germany – despite its per- severing efforts to come to terms with its Nazi past, and despite an extensive public taboo


of anti-Semitism – has a higher [incidence of] anti-Semitism than other western European countries.” The report shows that the internet plays a


big role in disseminating anti-Semitism. Ultra- Right and Islamic extremists and Holocaust deniers use the internet for their propaganda, the report says. And German football fans regularly use anti-Semitic chants at football matches. “Slanging matches at which the opposing team are castigated as ‘Jews’, and [abuse of] Jewish players … are everyday events on German football fields”, the report says.


(For the text of Cardinal Kurt Koch’s lecture on the history of Jewish-Catholic relations reported on in last week’s Tablet, visit www.thetablet.co.uk.)


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