Homosexuality to Blame for Sexual Abuse, Not Catholic Church - Cardinal

The statement comes amid a study commissioned by the German Bishops Conference in 2018, reporting that over 3,600 children were sexually abused by Catholic clergy in Germany between 1946 and 2014.

Child sex abuse cases in the Catholic Church were caused by the spread of homosexuality and modern public morals, German Cardinal Walter Brandmüller said in an interview with news agency DPA on Friday, also stating there is a "statistically proven" connection between homosexuality and sexual abuse.

According to the cardinal, the sexualisation of the modern world in recent decades has contributed heavily to the problem.

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"What has happened in the church is nothing other than what is happening in society as a whole", he said, adding that "the real scandal is that the Catholic Church hasn't distinguished itself from the rest of society".

He underlined that public discussion on the issue "forgets or silences the fact that 80 percent of the cases of sexual assault in the church affected male youths, not children" and puts blame on the church, while "only a vanishingly small number" of priests perpetrated the abuse.

Brandmüller is known as one of the harshest conservative critics of Pope Francis' policies.