(LifeSiteNews) — Christof May, the head of the Limburg diocesan seminary and the episcopal vicar for church development, killed himself on June 9, a day after he was confronted with allegations of different abuse cases and suspended from his office.
May was a promoter of the progressivist reform agenda in the Catholic Church in Germany and had been tasked by Bishop Georg Bätzing, the head of the German Bishops’ Conference, with organizing church reforms in his own Diocese of Limburg.
READ: Archbishop of Denver accuses German bishops of ‘betraying the Gospel’
The Diocese of Limburg under Bätzing has been for years at the forefront of Germany’s push for Catholic blessings for homosexual couples. Father May himself, in an October 4, 2020, homily, argued for welcoming “remarried” divorcees and homosexual couples and blessing them officially. He also argued that women “rightly” argue for “more power in the Church.” Moreover, the 49-year-old priest and member of the cathedral chapter bemoaned that “theologians (male and female) who present arguments in favor of an ordained office for the woman are being silenced.”
According to the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, several abuse allegations had come to the attention of the Diocese of Limburg weeks prior to May’s suicide. The German newspaper Die Bild reported that two allegations concern May’s sexually approaching a young man twenty years ago as well as having later sexually harassed a male youth. Die Bild added that, according to their sources, the priest wrote a one-page letter on the day of his suicide in which he admitted his faults and expressed his regrets.
According to Die Bild, Josef Isensee, a professor of law, commented on this event as follows: “It is no accident that the bishops who for the longest time covered up the misdeeds of their own personnel wish to blame systemic causes, now that they are being put on the spot themselves.”
That is to say, the German bishops who in their moral laxity have themselves not handled appropriately the abuse cases, have been looking, in the context of their German Synodal Path, for systemic causes of abuse, rather than considering their own moral responsibilities.
Bishop Georg Bätzing, as the head of the German bishops, is at the forefront of promoting a Church in Germany that is open to changing the Church’s moral teaching and that is opening up the ordained offices to women. However, he himself has recently been accused of promoting a priest in his diocese accused of having sexually harassed two women.
READ: Top German bishop defends promotion of priest accused of sexually abusing women
According to the Diocese of Limburg, “Bätzing made it unmistakably clear that he disapproved of such behavior,” and “issued a monitio, a written warning.” The priest did not receive a canonical or civil penalty, but “apologized to the staff member for his behavior, asked for forgiveness and showed credible remorse.” Bätzing subsequently appointed the priest “district dean of one of the eleven districts of the diocese.” This decision led to a public scandal just this past May, with the bishop himself defending his decision, saying that since there was an apology given, one should accept the possibility of a rehabilitation.
LifeSiteNews asks its readers to take a moment to pray for the soul of the deceased priest.
