Christian congress

Hundreds of thousands of Christians of all denominations have begun descending on the Bavarian capital, Munich, for what is the biggest gathering of its type in Europe.

Around 3,000 social, religious and political events are planned for the Christian Kirchentag, or Church Day congress, which, in addition to Catholics and Protestants, will also see members of the various orthodox churches attend.

But despite the efforts of the various churches to keep the focus on ecumenism at the five-day gathering, a series of ongoing clerical sexual abuse scandals has weighed heavily on the event.

The Catholic Church has faced a wave of sex abuse allegations across Ireland, Germany, Austria, Poland and the Netherlands in recent months. So far more than 150 cases of sexual abuse in Catholic institutions in Germany alone have been reported, some dating back to the 1950s.

The matter is to be addressed in a series of meetings at the Munich congress in an effort by Christian authorities to avoid being seen as dodging the issue. Alois Glueck, a German politician and leader of the Catholic side of the Kirchentag, said trust in the church had been shattered by the scandal revelations and that focus must now shift to the victims.

In his greeting to the Munich gathering, Pope Benedict XVI, who is currently in Portugal, called on Christians not to turn away from the church despite the latest scandals, saying the church remained a place of hope.

German President Horst Koehler meanwhile alluded to the many challenges facing Christian leaders at the congress.

"A failure in leadership, abuse, maltreatment - all of these things have led to a serious crisis," he said in his opening remarks. "Clarification and attention to the victims is the order of the day, but also the view ahead, the will for self-reflection and change."

dfm/dpa/AFP

Editor: Nancy Isenson