German bishop resigns for slapping children

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of a German Catholic bishop accused of sexually abusing a child. The Vatican announced on Saturday (May 8) that Walter Mixa of Augsburg had stepped down in accordance with a church law requiring the resignation of a “bishop who has become less able to fulfill […]

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of a German Catholic bishop accused of sexually abusing a child.

The Vatican announced on Saturday (May 8) that Walter Mixa of Augsburg had stepped down in accordance with a church law requiring the resignation of a “bishop who has become less able to fulfill his office because of ill health or some other grave cause.”

Mixa submitted his resignation last month, after first denying and then admitting that he had slapped children in the 1970s and`80s.


On Friday (May 7), the diocese of Eichstatt, Germany, announced prosecutors were investigating charges Mixa had committed sex abuse while serving as bishop there, from 1996 to 2000. According to the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper, Mixa has been accused of molesting a boy. His lawyer denied the charges.

The bishop has also been accused of mishandling the finances of a children’s home under his authority.

Mixa’s is only the latest resignation linked to the spreading European scandal over sexual abuse by Catholic priests. Since last December, three bishops in Ireland have resigned after being criticized for mishandling cases of pedophile priests.

The Vatican’s announcement about Mixa came two weeks after Bishop Roger J. Vangheluwe of Bruges, Belgium, stepped down after admitting he molested a boy early in his career.

On Saturday, Pope Benedict received the bishops of Belgium in a previously scheduled meeting and told them their church had been “tested by sin.”

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