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Rebellion in Germany against the cardinal who hides pedophilia

2021-02-26T02:13:23.928Z


The prelate refuses to publish a report commissioned by himself Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, in April last year.THILO SCHMUELGEN / Reuters The German Catholic Church is not going through its best moment. With the report that documented 3,677 cases of sexual abuse still recent - in 2018 it became known that these practices were widespread in the previous 70 years and that those responsible simply changed dioceses when they were discovered - the reputation of


Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, in April last year.THILO SCHMUELGEN / Reuters

The German Catholic Church is not going through its best moment.

With the report that documented 3,677 cases of sexual abuse still recent - in 2018 it became known that these practices were widespread in the previous 70 years and that those responsible simply changed dioceses when they were discovered - the reputation of the institution is once again in interdict.

One of its prominent representatives, the powerful Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, is being questioned by the faithful and by other ecclesiastical positions, which affect his lack of transparency and assumption of responsibilities.

His tenure in the archdiocese of Cologne is costing the German Church a trail of apostasies.

On January 30, the Diocesan Council, the highest organ of the Catholic laity of the Archdiocese of Cologne, adopted an unprecedented measure in the German Catholic Church.

The faithful of the country's largest diocese agreed to end cooperation with Woelki, whom they blamed in a letter that was made public of "having failed as a moral authority."

It was the culmination of a crisis fueled by the cardinal himself for months, by hiding an expert report that he himself commissioned.

Two years ago the cardinal hired a Munich law firm to carry out a thorough and independent investigation into the cases of abuse in his diocese and how those responsible reacted to them.

  • The Church affirms that it has fewer cases of pedophilia than other countries but says it does not know the figure

Woelki justifies his refusal to go public for legal reasons, but the firm that produced the report offered to publish the results at its own risk.

Woelki rejected it and for months he has been criticized for it.

At the beginning of the year several journalists indignantly left a press conference held by the Archdiocese of Cologne to discuss the report.

Church representatives were going to explain what methodological problems in the report prevented its publication, but asked journalists to sign a pledge to keep the content secret.

The informants refused.

Woelki has announced that a second version of the report will be released in March.

“The archdiocese of Cologne is in a great crisis,” says Tim Kurzbach, president of the Diocesan Council.

"Now it is a question of finally assuming responsibility for what happened, for the lack of will to clarify the situation and, of course, responsibility for the Catholic Church of the Archdiocese of Cologne to regain the requested trust."

Suspicions grow that Woelki could be hiding his own responsibility in one of the cases.

The Munich lawyers' report documents the abuse of more than 270 victims and lists about 230 suspects, according to the daily

Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger

, many more than those in the 2018 general report attributed to the Archbishopric of Cologne.

The new report, to be released on March 18, speaks of 300 victims and 200 accused from 1975 to 2018, according to

Der Spiegel

.

Source: elparis

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