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Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki (photo from August 18, 2021)
Photo: Oliver Berg / picture alliance / dpa
Cologne Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki and canon lawyer Thomas Schüller have settled their legal dispute.
The Archdiocese of Cologne announced that after Schüller had made an affidavit, Woelki had withdrawn his application for a temporary injunction.
The background to this are allegations of abuse against former Sternsinger President Winfried Pilz, who died in 2019.
A former employee accused Pilz of sexually abusing him in the 1970s.
Pilz, on the other hand, spoke of consensual sex.
The church examined the allegations and the suspicion was confirmed.
Woelki's predecessor Cardinal Meisner issued a reprimand in 2014, Pilz paid a fine - and he was banned from contact with minors.
Cardinal Woelki is under pressure because of the allegation that he did not provide information about the case, even though it was known within the church for a long time.
"Bild" had reported in an article about allegations of abuse against mushroom.
The cleric moved to East Germany in 2010, but the responsible diocese of Dresden-Meissen was not informed of the allegations against him by the Archdiocese of Cologne.
Schüller said in the report that the report was omitted under Woelki's predecessor, Cardinal Joachim Meisner, and that Woelki had not made up for it.
The article went on to say: »The canon lawyer also states the motive for Woelki’s breach of official duty: ›Pilz was under monument protection at Woelki because of his prominence.‹«
Because of this passage, the Archdiocese took action against Schüller and the newspaper.
The diocese stated that Woelki had not been involved with the Pilz case until June of this year.
The allegations against him are therefore unfounded.
According to the Archdiocese, Schüller has now made it clear that he has not commented on an alleged motive of Woelkis.
»Perverse interpretation«?
Schüller's lawyer emphasized that the sentence with the monument protection was quoted correctly.
With his statement, Schüller only had to react to “the erroneous interpretation”, he said that Cardinal Woelki had personally dealt with the case and made a conscious decision not to report the contact ban imposed on Pilz because of his prominence to the Dresden-Meissen diocese.
Schüller's lawyer emphasized: "For Prof. Schüller, the fact that 'Pilz bei Woelki was under monument protection' is an explanation for the blatant omissions of the archdiocese." More decisive than the question of whether this is a "motive" or an "explanation « paraphrase is this: Cardinal Woelki did not defend himself in the legal dispute against the fact that Schüller accused him of »a clear breach of official duty«.
A "Bild" spokesman said Schüller released the quotes published in the article both in isolation and in context.
Despite allegations of abuse against Pilz, the Archdiocese published an exuberant obituary for the priest who wrote the famous hymn »Laudato si« after his death.
The church is now examining the suspicion that even more people may have been abused by Pilz.
jpz/dpa