Bad Staffelstein, Germany - A prominent archbishop called Thursday for justice for sexual abuse victims in Germany's Roman Catholic Church, saying they need to feel they can finally speak openly about their suffering.
Reinhard Marx, the archbishop of Munich and Freising, said Catholic bishops in the southern German state of Bavaria - the homeland of Pope Benedict XVI - felt "deep consternation and shame" over the reports of abuse of children in church-run schools and institutions revealed in past weeks.
"The priority is the search for the truth and achieving an open atmosphere that will give the victims courage to speak about what happened to them," Marx told reporters following a meeting with Bavarian bishops.
Marx said the bishops had agreed to investigate each claim and would contact authorities as appropriate.
The statements come as the German church continues to grapple with the magnitude of abuse claims; since the first victims came forward in January, at least 300 others have said they suffered sexual or physical abuse at the hands of priests.
Victims in neighboring Austria and the Netherlands have also come forward with claims of abuse, triggering a crisis in the church and charges the pontiff is avoiding comment on the issue.
"If the pope himself doesn't take a stance, apologize for what Rome has committed over the past decades in terms of cover-up - then our believers will become even more disappointed than they already are," Father Udo Fischer, who heads a parish in the Lower Austrian village of Paudorf told the ORF public broadcaster.
"Jesus would certainly not have kept quiet," Fischer said.
Robert Zollitsch, the head of Germany's Bishops Conference, met the pontiff last week and insisted in a letter Thursday to Die Welt newspaper that the pope has repeatedly made clear his position on sexual abuse.
"I know from my discussion with the pope how deeply appalled he is by the sexual abuse of children by priests, especially in Germany," Zollitsch wrote.
Benedict spoke out repeatedly against sexual abuse during his 2008 trip to the United States. He called the crisis then a cause of "deep shame," pledged to keep pedophiles out of the priesthood and decried the "enormous pain" that communities have suffered from priests' "gravely immoral behavior."
Zollitsch pointed out that despite his heritage, Benedict is the pontiff for all Catholics, not just those in Germany, and his previous statements on the issue remain valid.
"His words retain their weight, even if they are not constantly repeated," Zollitsch wrote.