Saturday, July 17, 2010

When you fail to live your values…

The Lutheran bishop of Hamburg, Maria Jespen, resigned because she failed to live her values. She is alleged to have known about abuse allegations concerning Gert Dietrich K, and took no action..

According to media reports, the bishop only began to investigate the case this year after the abused woman, now 46, contacted her directly in March.

Bishop Jepsen said she had not known about the case earlier, but the young woman signed an affidavit this week that she had informed the bishop through a local minister in 1999.

Well, you live or die by your values when you are in the public eye. Maria Jespen’s life work is forever tainted by the stain of neglecting her duties. I don’t know how she can bear it.

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At least she did resign and took responsibility. You might be interested in her German counterpart catholic Bishop Walter Mixa, who had to be forced out of office (he had seriously beaten children earlier in his career in religious classes but refused to admit more than some 'slaps').
I wonder why Jepsens's case received a wider reception outside of Germany, the Catholics here clearly have had more scandals recently.

btw: nice blog, carry on!

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