German Catholic Church to offer abuse victims compensation

FILE PHOTO: Glass windows based on x-ray photographs of human lungs are seen at the Church of The Holy Cross (Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche) in Munich, Germany, October 20, 2019. REUTERS/Andreas Gebert

BERLIN (Reuters) - The victims of sexual abuse in Germany's Catholic Church can apply for compensation payments of up to 50,000 euros from next year, the chairman of the German Bishops' Conference (DBK) said on Thursday.

According to a study from 2018 on abuse in the Catholic Church, at least 3,677 minors were victims of sexual violence by at least 1,670 members of the clergy in Germany between 1946 and 2014. Experts, say, however, the number of unreported cases could be as high as 100,000.