Walter Mixa

Walter Johannes Mixa (born 25 April 1941) is a German Catholic priest, and Bishop Emeritus of Augsburg and Ordinary Emeritus of the Bundeswehr. He resigned as Bishop of Augsburg in 2010 due to allegations of fraud and violence towards children who had been in his care, as well as the sexual abuse of priests.

Mixa was born in Königshütte, Silesia (today Chorzów, Poland). His family fled to Western Germany at the end of World War II. Mixa passed his Abitur in 1964 and studied Catholic theology in Dillingen and Fribourg. He was ordained in 1970 in Augsburg and thereafter he studied for his doctorate at the University of Augsburg. From 1973 to 1996 he also worked as a religion teacher in Schrobenhausen. In 1975 Mixa became a parish priest in Schrobenhausen and bishop of Eichstätt in 1996. In August 2000 Mixa was appointed Catholic Military Bishop of the Bundeswehr by Pope John Paul II. In July 2005 Mixa became Bishop of Augsburg, to be succeeded in Eichstätt by Bp. Gregor Maria Hanke OSB. On 21 March 2012 he was appointed a Member of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Health Care Workers by Pope Benedict XVI.

Beliefs

Mixa is described as being conservative and close to Pope Benedict. According to the Times newspaper, Mixa is outspoken and "has railed against the German Government for making "birth machines" out of women" and has "compared abortion to the Holocaust". He has also condemned Israel's treatment of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and has said of the 2010 child abuse scandal that "The sexual revolution of the 1960s is at least partly to blame for this".

Abuse allegations

In March 2010 he was accused of physical abuse by five ex-pupils of a children's care home, where Mixa served as a visiting priest in the 1970s and 1980s. He has denied the allegations. Further accusers have come forward and the bishop says that he cannot remember any of them. In April 2010 Mixa stated that he cannot exclude having slapped children 20–30 years ago saying he was "sorry for causing many people grief", though, according to BBC, he didn't explain what exactly he meant.

On 21 April, he offered his resignation to Pope Benedict XVI, which was accepted on 8 May 2010. His successor in Augsburg is Bp. Konrad Zdarsa, formerly of Görlitz.