German top court weighs 500,000 to 600,000 euros for woman abused by priest in church case

A German court has said that compensation of 500,000 to 600,000 euros could be adequate for victims of sexual violence in a case involving a Catholic archdiocese. The court made the announcement on Thursday, October 15. An appeal was scheduled for November 26. According to a journal report cited in the source, the highest previous German award in comparable church sexual violence cases was 300,000 euros. That compensation was granted in 2023 to a former altar server who had been sexually assaulted.

The plaintiff, identified as Melanie F., is seeking 830,000 euros for moral damage. She says she was sexually assaulted as a child by a priest who later adopted her. The archdiocese had already paid her 360,000 euros as a voluntary “payment for admission of guilt.” That sum would be counted against any compensation awarded for moral and physical suffering.

Melanie F. first brought her suit before the Cologne Regional Court, which rejected it in July 2025. The lower court reasoned that the priest had acted as a foster father and as a private individual, not in the exercise of his spiritual duties.

The higher court said it considers it possible to hold the archbishop responsible and intends to reconsider that earlier decision. It stated its view that the first offenses were committed before the priest became the girl’s adoptive father. It also argued that his priestly status could have functioned as a “private” cover, noting that in the mid-1980s a single man would hardly have been trusted to adopt a child unless he were a priest. Protecting a child from a person in a position of trust is central to the case, a matter of defending the vulnerable (Psalm 82:3).

The victims’ support group Eckiger Tisch welcomed the court’s assessment and called it a landmark. Its managing director, Matthias Katsch, said the higher court’s decision could create an important legal precedent and give other victims arguments in their own lawsuits. The association also said the Independent Commission for Recognition Payments should take this assessment into account in its future decisions.

The source also cites a study commissioned by the German Bishops’ Conference, which found that between 1946 and 2014 there were 3,600 victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy in Germany.

Source: Read the original report (translated from Ukrainian)