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Pastor Klaus Koltermann from Dormagen
Photo: Annette Langer / DER SPIEGEL
Klaus Koltermann doesn't like arguments.
But he likes to speak his mind.
You could think of no problem in a democracy.
But the pastor from Dormagen in the Rhineland is part of a quasi-monarchical system that sometimes prefers to prevent criticism than to be spurred on by it.
On December 27th, Koltermann wrote a letter to the editor for the Neuss-Grevenbroicher Zeitung and suddenly got caught up in a David versus Goliath conflict in which the Catholic Church did not cut a good figure.
In the article, the pastor is behind calls for resignation to the Archbishop of Cologne Rainer Maria Woelki, who is accused of initially neither initiating a canonical investigation nor reporting to Rome in a case of abuse.
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Koltermann in his parish church of St. Pankratius: "Those affected by abuse are waiting for justice to be done"
Photo: Annette Langer / DER SPIEGEL
In addition, Woelki had unexpectedly canceled the publication of an independent abuse report by the Munich law firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl.
The reason was methodological deficiencies and a possible violation of personal rights, it said.
Subtext: One fears legal action by those who may have been involved in a cover-up or prevention of punishment in the Archdiocese of Cologne.
A new report by the criminal lawyer Björn Gercke is to be presented soon.
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