Rainer Maria Woelki: Law firm wants to take on the risk of abuse reports in the Archdiocese of Cologne

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Rainer Maria Woelki: Which technical defects in the report does he see?

Photo: Andreas Arnold / dpa

The pressure on Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki is growing: The authors of the abuse report that the Archbishop of Cologne had withheld offered to publish their assessments themselves - and to take full responsibility for them.

The commissioned Munich law firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl writes in a message that they could post the report on their homepage, »so that, according to our assessment, there are no liability risks for the Archdiocese of Cologne.

We bear the sole and full responsibility for this. "

Up until now, Woelki had always said that he could not publish the report because it had legal deficiencies and was "not legally valid".

The lawyers of the renowned law firm deny that.

However, the Archdiocese of Cardinal Woelkis immediately rejected the offer from the Munich lawyers.

The "publication of an illegal report" by Westpfahl Spilker Wastl could not be approved, the press office said.

The report is "unsuitable" because of its technical defects.

Woelki had commissioned the report himself.

The independent lawyers from Munich should investigate how the archbishopric has dealt with allegations of sexual abuse of children by priests in the past.

Auxiliary bishop draws controversial Goebbels comparison

After the report had been completed, however, Woelki refused to publish it and commissioned a Cologne criminal lawyer to issue a new report.

It should be released on March 18th.

There was criticism of this decision, including among priests.

The archbishopric therefore threatened a pastor with consequences.

However, it has already become known from the report that today's Archbishop of Hamburg, Stefan Heße - formerly head of personnel in Cologne - is being viewed critically.

He denies the allegations.

Meanwhile, the German Association of Journalists (DJV) criticized a comparison by the auxiliary bishop of Cologne, Ansgar Puff, who had come under fire for statements about media coverage.

"Auxiliary Bishop Puff's statements sparked by the freedom of the press and the acceptance of professional journalism in society," said DJV chairman Frank Überall of the "Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger".

Puff spoke about fake news from Donald Trump in a video on the Cologne diocese portal "Domradio".

In this context he mentioned the quote attributed to the Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels "You only have to repeat a lie often enough, then it will be believed".

He then said that he always looks carefully when he finds the same topic week after week in certain media.

"I think about what could be behind it, what agenda is being pursued, because I know that repetitions alone do not automatically make a statement true, not even when it comes to the alleged misconduct of bishops." Reporting on Woelki.

The DJV chairman Überall said that placing the legitimate reporting of professional media in line with Goebbels and the former US President Trump was "an attack on professional journalists in Germany."

In a written statement, Puff said that he only referred the Goebbels quote to Trump.

"If the impression arose that I wanted to compare journalists and today's journalism with Goebbels, I am sincerely sorry and I apologize for that."

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apr / dpa