“The abuse crisis is in the Church’s DNA.” With these words, German bishop Heiner Wilmer ignited a firestorm of controversy. A trusted confidant of the late Pope Francis and a prominent progressive voice, Wilmer argued that the theological structure of the Catholic Church itself fosters both abuse and its cover-up. Critics subsequently accused him of “abusing the abuse scandal,” i.e. weaponising it to serve an agenda of Church reform that includes female priests, same-sex blessings, and moving the Church’s governance from clergy to lay bureaucrats.
Constitutional lawyer Josef Isensee, a disciple of the political theorist Carl Schmitt, strongly rejected Wilmer’s claim. He argued that bishops were shifting personal responsibility onto the institution itself, deflecting blame for their own failure to discipline offenders. “For decades, they concealed the crimes of their own clergy,” he told KNA, a German news agency, “and in doing so, they have destroyed trust in the Church.” That failure, he added, has driven the Catholic Church to the lowest point of its societal standing in modern history.
A Crisis That Won’t Go Away
Sexual abuse within the Church has been a persistent issue across the Western world. In the United States, decisive action has been taken since the early 2000s—seminary reforms were introduced, bishops were removed, and stricter oversight was implemented. But under Pope Francis, the Vatican has often appeared reluctant to address the problem. His predecessor, Benedict XVI (2005–2013), took aggressive steps, dismissing multiple bishops and attempting sweeping reforms. In Ireland, where abuse scandals rocked the Church’s credibility, Benedict planned to overhaul priestly formation by relocating the country’s seminary to Rome. That effort came to an abrupt halt under Francis, and the crisis remains unresolved.
Francis himself was forced to confront the issue during a trip to Chile. At a papal Mass, Bishop Juan Barros—accused of covering up abuse by the notorious priest Fernando Karadima—was seen in attendance. When a reporter asked Francis about the controversy, he dismissed the claims as “slander,” insisting, “There is not a single piece of evidence.” The reaction was swift and furious. The scandal escalated, culminating in the mass resignation of Chile’s bishops. The Pope ultimately accepted only five of those resignations but was forced to admit to “grave errors” in his handling of the affair.
