Legal, theological and children’s rights experts say the credibility of the Roman Catholic Church in Lutheran Denmark is suffering as a result of the attitudes of the country’s bishop, Czeslaw Kozon, according to Kristeligt Dagblad.

Criticism of Bishop Kozon comes following his reported statements that the Church is neither obliged to investigate old cases of sexual abuse or report new cases to the police.

Kozon has said that he knows of 4-5 cases in the 1980s or before of the abuse of children and young people within the Catholic Church in Denmark. The abuse has never been reported to the authorities.

“A major institution such as the Catholic Church is legally responsible to make sure that cases of abuse are investigated and stopped,” Prof. Kirsten Ketscher of the Copenhagen University Law Faculty tells Kristeligt Dagblad. She adds that the bishop may have broken the law.

Assistant Professor Peter Lodberg of Aarhus University Theology Faculty says the Church risks serious repercussions if it does not thoroughly investigate cases.

“If the Church does nothing, these cases will become like a snowball that rolls downhill and becomes so big that it will destroy the Catholic Church’s backing and credibility in Denmark,” he says.

Prof. Per Schultz Jørgensen, Ph.D in paediatric psychology and a member of the Children’s Council says that it is not up to the bishop or the Catholic Church to determine whether a case should be reported to the authorities.