More headaches for Pope Ratz.....The abuse hotline rings off the hook

from the NY Times:



German Church Abuse Hotline Gets Flood of Calls

By NICHOLAS KULISH
Published: April 8, 2010


BERLIN — The Roman Catholic Church’s phone line for victims of sexual abuse in Germany was overwhelmed with calls last week, the telephone counseling service’s first in operation.

Callers made 13,293 attempts to get through to church psychologists and social workers in three days, according to Andreas Zimmer, director of the counseling center at the Diocese of Trier, which is handling the nationwide free line. He said that employees handled 394 telephone consultations and a further 91 online consultations routed through the center in Trier, which lies along the German border with Luxembourg.

Critics questioned whether a church-run service would be trusted by victims of abuse by priests and in church institutions. But data showed that people called from 2,670 different phone numbers, and thus that many made multiple calls trying to connect, surprising even those managing the line.

“There was a gigantic number of attempts to get through,” Mr. Zimmer said. “It was significantly more, in fact, than we expected.” .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/09/world/europe/09germany.html

I'll bet you can tell where the hottest "Pedophile Priest" hideaways are from the call densities.