A former member of Germany’s renowned Regensburger Domspatzen (Cathedral Sparrows) boys’ choir has lost a lawsuit seeking damages from the Catholic diocese of Regensburg over alleged abuse he says he suffered as a child.
The Regensburg Regional Court dismissed the claim on the grounds that it was time-barred under Germany’s statute of limitations, a court spokesman said on Friday.
The plaintiff had sought a total of around €400,000 ($458,000) in compensation for pain and suffering and lost earnings, alleging that he had been mistreated and sexually abused at a pre-school affiliated with the choir in the early 1990s. He also sought additional damages.
In its ruling, handed down on Thursday but not disclosed until the following day, the court stressed that its decision was based solely on the question of limitation periods and did not constitute a judgement on whether the alleged abuse had occurred.
The court “does not fail to recognize that it was and remains particularly challenging and distressing for those abused by church officials to come forward, speak about the acts and confront them,” it said in its reasoning.
The court added that those affected might understandably feel that their suffering was not being legally recognized when compensation claims are rejected because of the limitation period.
The diocese of Regensburg had requested that the lawsuit be dismissed on other grounds. According to the court, the diocese claimed a lack of knowledge of the alleged acts of abuse. “This means that the diocese did not portray the acts of abuse as untrue, but rather stated that it did not know what had happened at the time,” the court explained.