A Munich prosecutor's office is investigating 42 cases of misconduct by German Catholic Church leaders in connection with a new report on abuse in the Munich and Freising archdiocese.
The office's spokeswoman Anne Leiding confirmed the probes were under way to dpa.
Leiding said the law firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl (WSW), which prepared the report on behalf of the archdiocese, provided 41 cases to the public prosecutor's office in August 2021 and another in November 2021.
"They exclusively concern church officials who are still alive and have been transmitted in a strictly anonymized format," she said.
If on this basis "suspicions arise with regard to potentially criminally relevant behaviour on the part of the church leaders in charge," she said, the relevant documents would be requested from the law firm and if necessary passed on to the relevant public prosecutor's offices.
"Which norms have been violated under criminal law is still under investigation," she said.
