Berlin - Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday that sexual abuse of children was not confined to the Roman Catholic Church, as German bishops reportedly drew up plans to compensate victims of paedophile priests.
"Sexual abuse of children... is a heinous crime, and there is only one possibility, namely that our society deals with these cases," Merkel said during a general debate in parliament.
"And that means truth and clarity on everything that has happened."
But she added: "It makes no sense, even if the first cases (of abuse) are in the Catholic Church, to focus on one group. This is something that has happened in many areas of society."
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The German Catholic Church has been thrown into crisis in recent weeks as hundreds have come forward alleging they were abused as minors between the 1950s and 1980s.
Revelations of abuse have also rocked other European countries, including the Netherlands, Switzerland and Austria. Evidence of widespread abuse in Ireland, compounded by evidence of a cover-up, rocked the country late last year.
Other government figures have been harsher in their attacks than Merkel, a protestant pastor's daughter, who last year took a swipe at the German-born pope over his rehabilitation of a bishop denying the Holocaust.
All but a handful of the allegations have been made against church-run institutions. A poll last week showed 86 percent of Germans thought the church was not doing enough to investigate.
Stephan Ackermann, the bishop in charge of investigating abuse, said on Wednesday that there had been a "cover up" in a "whole range" of cases, when the church failed to investigate properly or suspect priests were just moved.
Accusations have been made in around two thirds of Germany's 27 dioceses in recent weeks including in Munich and Freising, where Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, was archbishop from 1977 to 1982.
It emerged on Friday that Ratzinger had approved in 1980 giving church housing in his diocese to a priest under suspicion of paedophilia who was convicted six years later, by which time Ratzinger had moved to the Vatican.
Also implicated is a boarding school attached to Regensburg cathedral's thousand-year-old choir, run for three decades by the pope's elder brother. He has denied knowing about any sexual abuse and has not been accused directly.
Most of the priests concerned are not expected to face criminal charges because the alleged crimes took place too long ago.
But there have been growing calls for a change in the law and for the church to pay compensation - something which Merkel said on Wednesday should at least be considered.
The Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily cited unnamed church sources on Wednesday as saying that bishops were considering creating a fund to pay compensation, possibly with the state contributing.
A spokesman for the German Episcopal Conference denied that such a fund was in the works, whereas Karl Juesten, head of the Commissariat of German Bishops, said that "material" compensation was not ruled out.
Next month, the government plans to hold a "round table" discussion involving church leaders and victims and others to discuss possible compensation, changes to the law and ways to prevent future abuse. - AFP
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