DPA/Vienna

Cases of sexual and physical abuse by Catholic clergymen surfaced in Austria yesterday, as the boarding school of Mehrerau abbey confirmed anonymous accusations and a Salzburg abbot admitted to being a molester.

In Mehrerau in western Austria, one priest had sexually abused a male pupil at the school in the 1980s, Abbot Anselm van der Linde alleged in an interview published yesterday.

Another Mehrerau priest sexually abused a young male drug user in the town of Innsbruck in 2001 while he was studying there, the head of the abbey told the regional daily Vorarlberger Nachrichten.

Pupils were also beaten by their Catholic educators, a practice common through the mid-1980s.

“There is no question that there were educational measures which would be unthinkable today,” the daily quoted the abbot, who took on his post last year.

The abbey is planning to hire independent counsellors for other potential victims.

The need to create a secure environment for victims was highlighted by a second shocking case that emerged at the Sankt Peter monastery in Salzburg.

A monastery official said that 40 years ago, Arch-abbot Bruno Becker had heard that an 11-year old boy had been abused by two monks.

But in the course of a conversation with the boy, Becker himself molested the child again. At that time, Becker was still an aspirant priest.

“This is a dark and bitter day for the church and for our monastery,” Prior Korbinian Birnbacher, a senior priest at Sankt Peter, told news agencies.

The arch-abbot has admitted the incident and handed in his resignation.

In the Mehrerau cases, one alleged perpetrator was transferred to another province after the incident in the 80s, while the other priest was convicted in court.