Archbishop Gerhard Muller

The senior Vatican official with authority for investigating priests accused of sexual abuse said that, in such cases, “always and everywhere the most important concern is for those who have been the victims of this terrible abuse.”

Archbishop Gerhard Muller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said the congregation also has an obligation to ensure that the process of justice does not “become a lynching.”

The archbishop, appointed to his office in July, spoke about the doctrinal congregation in an interview with the German service of Vatican Radio.