Osnabrück Bishop Franz-Josef Bode has resigned from his post because of personal mistakes in dealing with cases of sexual abuse in his diocese. On Saturday, Pope Francis in the Vatican complied with the request of the 72-year-old Bode, the Vatican and the diocese announced together.

"I expressly acknowledge my responsibility as well as my personal mistakes and today I can only ask everyone concerned for forgiveness again," Bode wrote in a personal statement to the faithful of his Catholic diocese.

Study found errors in handling abuse cases

A study presented in September by the University of Osnabrück found that Bode made mistakes in dealing with cases of sexualized violence in several cases. In one case, a priest had sexualized violence against a girl in a community for years. The experts accuse Bode of having given him a management position in youth work in the same year that the person concerned reported the man to the bishop. Because of the error, the affected council of the dioceses of Osnabrück, Hildesheim and the Archdiocese of Hamburg reported Bode to the Vatican.

After the study was presented, Bode admitted to making mistakes, but initially ruled out resigning. Bode wrote that he acted in this way because he wanted to use his remaining time as Bishop of Osnabrück to further improve the way his diocese dealt with cases of sexualized violence.

Some would have lost all confidence in him, others would have encouraged him to continue, Bode explained. "Overall, however, I underestimated the extent of the irritation, especially among the diocese's staff," admitted Bode on Saturday.

Bode had previously contacted Pope

According to a spokesman for Bode, the Osnabrück bishop had already approached the pope with a request for resignation some time ago, but only wanted to make it public if Pope Francis accepted it.

"I was personally very touched and surprised by Bishop Bode's resignation," said Katharina Abeln, the representative of the laity in the diocese of Osnabrück, as chairwoman of the Catholic Council. She very much regrets this decision, but would also like to express her great respect for Bode's assumption of responsibility. She thanked the outgoing bishop.

The chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg, accepted Bode's resignation with "great regret and respect". He understands the decision and the associated consequences and expressed Bode's thanks and recognition of the German Bishops' Conference.

Bode was the longest-serving bishop in Germany. He was ordained a bishop in Paderborn in 1991. In November 1995 he became the new bishop in Osnabrück after the Archdiocese of Hamburg had been founded and large parts of the old Osnabrück diocese outside of Lower Saxony were added to it.

In 2010, Bode asked forgiveness for the church's transgressions

For a long time, Bode was considered one of the pioneers both in the critical processing of the abuse scandal and for the reform process in the Catholic Church. In 2010, Bode asked for forgiveness for the misconduct of the church in a penitential service in Osnabrück Cathedral. Bode was one of the first bishops to appoint women to important management positions in the diocese and was committed to the reform process of the synodal path. For this he also received opposition from conservative Catholic circles.

With around 530,000 believers, the diocese of Osnabrück is one of the rather small dioceses in Germany. In addition to the large cities of Osnabrück and Bremen, rural regions such as the Catholic Emsland or the predominantly Protestant East Friesland with its islands belong to the diocese.