Pope accepts resignation of German bishop for hitting children

Pope Benedict XVI yesterday accepted the resignation of German bishop Walter Mixa over charges of beating children in a Catholic orphanage more than 20 years ago, the Vatican said.

Mixa, 69, was the bishop of Augsburg in southern Germany and of the German military, and tendered his resignation last Thursday from both posts after admitting to hitting children.

The pope "has accepted the renunciation of the pastoral government of the Augsburg diocese submitted by Walter Mixa," a Vatican statement said.

He accepted the resignation under a code of canon law that allows the retirement of priests before the legal age of 75 due to 'illness' or unspecified 'other serious reasons', it said.

The pope acted the day after German prosecutors said they were also probing paedophilia claims against Mixa, following media reports that he had been accused of sexually abusing a boy while bishop of Eichstaett between 1996 and 2005.

The German weekly Focus said yesterday the pope had been told by senior German clergy of the sexual abuse allegations against Mixa before he resigned.

Mixa, 69, at first rebuffed allegations that he beat children and youths at the Schrobenhausen orphanage between 1975 and 1996 in the face of several sworn statements from his accusers.

But on April 21 he tendered his resignation to Benedict after admitting giving youngsters in his care "a slap in the face or two", which he said was "completely normal back then".