Controversial former Augsburg bishop Walter Mixa, who resigned over allegations of child abuse and misusing Catholic Church funds, says he was forced out and wants his case invalidated reviewed by the Vatican. Taking his case to Rome is a "very good idea which I am considering and weighing very well," the 69-year-old told daily Die Welt.
Should he do so, he would appeal to Church laws which make certain actions invalid if they occurred due to outside pressure, something Mixa said he suffered. The pressure to resign was "like purgatory," he told the paper.
Mixa accused the head of Bavaria's Catholic bishops, Archbishop Reinhard Marx, as well as the country's top Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of rushing to the Pope with a "so-called abuse case based on what amounts to no more than eight handwritten sentences on a highly dubious scribbled note."
Instead the two should have been "more brotherly," Mixa said.
Mixa said he plans to speak personally with Pope Benedict XVI in July, he told Die Welt.
"He invited me for a conversation," he said. "Above all I want to discuss how the situation should further develop."
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