Berlin, Germany - Germany's Catholic bishops offered compensation Wednesday of up to 5,000 euros (6,900 dollars) to victims of sexual abuse in parishes and parochial schools over the past half century.
They detailed the offer at a Berlin meeting with government ministers and welfare groups, the Round Table, which was set up last year to debate the country's response to a flood of abuse revelations.
Each sex offender will be ordered to pay the compensation, with the bishops topping up the sum for those that refuse to pay or have no assets.
It remains unclear how many claims there will be, but the number is likely to be "several thousand," a spokesman said.
Earlier, the Jesuit and Benedictine orders of Catholic priests separately offered a similar amount to victims at their German schools, which are not under the authority of the 27 bishops.
The scandal broke at a Jesuit secondary school in Berlin in January last year and quickly widened to include Protestant churches and a leading private boarding school with no religious affiliation.
None of the offenders can be prosecuted because of the statute of limitations. Some cases occurred in the 1950s.
The cash compensation, to those who suffered sexual abuse while they were children, will be on a scale depending on the degree of the abuse, the bishops' negotiator said. Those who remain traumatized will be able to bill the church for psychological counselling.
The church will begin processing applications on March 10, without waiting for the Round Table to report back to the government, and will begin remitting the money in the first half of the year, a spokesman said.
The bishops also proposed to fund an agency to fight sex abuse with 500,000 euros.