Official finding Christian institutions & contexts Catholic Germany · 2018

MHG Study: commissioned review identifies 1,670 accused clerics and 3,677 affected minors

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Record class

Institutional event

Evidence status

Official finding

Authority role

Catholic clergy, diocesan assignment authorities, church file custodians and institutional leadership

Organization

German Bishops' Conference, 27 Catholic dioceses in Germany

Archive classification

This is the archive's application of its published inclusion test. The cited record appears below.

The commissioned study found that ordained office could give accused clergy power, authority and largely unrestricted access to children. It also documented transfer practices, secrecy and record failures that could protect accused clerics and expose additional children. The spiritual nexus is the authority and institutional protection attached to clerical office, not Catholic identity by itself.

Pastoral or clerical authority
Institutional obedience or isolation

Evidence structure

Proceedings

2014-03-01 · commissioned independent research project

German Bishops' Conference. The conference commissioned a consortium based at Mannheim, Heidelberg and Gießen to conduct a retrospective descriptive study across all 27 German dioceses.
2018-09-25 · study publication

MHG research consortium and German Bishops' Conference. The study reviewed information drawn from 38,156 personnel and reference files covering 1946 through 2014. It identified allegations involving 1,670 clerics and 3,677 children and adolescents in the reviewed records.
2018-09-27 · institutional response

German Bishops' Conference. The bishops publicly acknowledged institutional failure and committed to further independent review, prevention, recognition and compensation work.

Documented coercion mechanisms

power and access attached to ordained office
clerical and institutional authority over children
transfers without adequate notice
secrecy and deficient record handling
institutional protection of the accused

Cited record

Sources

commissioned independent study official study report Harald Dreßing et al., Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests, Deacons and Male Members of Orders in the Domain of the German Bishops' Conference, English summary of final report (2018).: The commissioned study's official English summary states the design, review period, participation of all 27 dioceses, 38,156 files reviewed, 1,670 accused clerics, 3,677 affected minors, institutional findings, and the limits created by indirect file access, undercounting and a descriptive design.
commissioning institution record study provenance German Bishops' Conference, MHG Study project and publication record.: The commissioning institution's project page identifies the research consortium, confirms participation across the German dioceses and preserves the report and related project materials.
institutional response official response German Bishops' Conference, statement on the results of the MHG Study (Sept. 27, 2018).: The bishops' official response acknowledges institutional failure and records the institutional commitments made after publication. It is cited as the subject institution's response, not as independent validation of the study.

Source provenance

Source access and integrity log

This log records source retrieval and file integrity. It does not mean that an automated process independently confirmed every statement in the source.

Source and tier basis: https://www.dbk.de/fileadmin/redaktion/diverse_downloads/Dossiers_alt/dossiers_2018/MHG-Study-eng-Endbericht-Zusammenfassung.pdf Corpus classification: commissioned-independent-study; evidentiary role: official-study-report. SHA-256 4d54d3ac3c961a45b1631a4dbef0444d016e147c036ce0ee6887112cbfad110a
Retrieval: 2026-07-20 · Preserved; Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger
Source and tier basis: https://www.dbk.de/themen/sexualisierte-gewalt-und-praevention/forschung-und-aufarbeitung/studien/mhg-studie Corpus classification: commissioning-institution-record; evidentiary role: study-provenance.
Retrieval: 2026-07-27 · Retrieval failed; Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger
Source and tier basis: https://www.dbk.de/fileadmin/redaktion/diverse_downloads/presse_2018/2018-154a-Anlage1-engl.-Erklaerung-der-Deutschen-Bischofskonferenz-zu-den-Ergebnissen-der-MHG-Studie.pdf Corpus classification: institutional-response; evidentiary role: official-response.
Retrieval: 2026-07-27 · Retrieval failed; Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger

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