'Also many abuse cases within German church'

berlin - The German Roman Catholic Church has had the abuse under clergy themselves mapped. Thousands of alleged abuse cases emerged from the confidential investigation, according to news article Der Spiegel.

The German bishops' conference had tens of thousands of internal files scrutinized. Researchers concluded that between 1946 and 2014 almost 3680 cases of sexual misconduct were noted. Some 1670 clergymen would be responsible for that. Most victims were boys.

The researchers emphasize that there is a cautious estimate. Personnel files of clerics accused of abuse were found to have been manipulated or destroyed in many cases.