Crisis of confidence: A new report reveals that there were significantly more abusers and victims in the Archdiocese of Cologne than previously assumed.
Now the cardinal speaks out.
Update from February 21, 9:30 a.m.:
In a video message, Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelk from Cologne commented on his mistakes in dealing with misuse.
The video was released on Saturday.
By withholding the expert opinion on the allegations of sexual abuse of children
(see initial
report
)
by priests, he was guilty of guilt.
"I'm so sorry about that," he said.
"It was and I want to consistently come to terms with it." His approach has led to a serious crisis of confidence in the largest German diocese.
"You are having a hard time understanding why a second independent investigation is needed to uncover the systematic connections of decades of abuse in our archdiocese and to show them in detail," said Woelki about the reactions of believers in the past weeks and months.
But he is convinced that this is necessary because he needs "a certain qualitative and quantitative factual situation".
The law firm that prepared the first report rejects all allegations.
"It was and is my intention to achieve a transparent, consistent clarification of the abuse offenses and their systemic circumstances in our archdiocese - of course also with a view to my own person," said the Cologne cardinal.
Archdiocese of Cologne under immense criticism - Cardinal withheld decisive expert opinion
First report from February 20, 12 noon:
Cologne - The Archdiocese of Cologne is under heavy pressure.
The number of abusers and victims is namely much higher than previously assumed.
Following a preliminary report by the
Spiegel
, the expert Björn Gercke, who was commissioned by Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, has come up with around 300 victims and 200 suspects since 1975. The expert Gercke informed the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger” that the in “Spiegel” was in advance published figures of the report which "should be the final figures".
The abuse study of the German bishops, previously commissioned and presented in autumn 2018, listed only 135 victims and 87 accused clergy for the archdiocese of Cologne for the period between 1946 and 2015.
The new report is to be presented on March 18.
The study covers the period up to 1975 and thus the terms of office of Cardinals Joseph Höffner (Archbishop from 1969 to 1987), Joachim Meisner (1989 to 2014) and Woelki (since 2014).
Sharp criticism: investigation is withheld from the public
According to information from
Spiegel, the
report evaluates
over 300 suspicious transaction
reports
and 236 file transactions.
The case also lists the case of a priest who was accused of sexual abuse in a boarding school in the Archdiocese of Cologne in the 1980s.
The priest concerned was later appointed pastor and youth chaplain despite the abuse allegations and is said to have behaved sexually abusive towards a teenage girl in 2002.
Despite the numerous allegations, Cardinal Woelki said goodbye to his retirement in 2017.
In addition, criticism has been voiced about the fact that the Archdiocese of Cologne has not yet published a study previously commissioned by the Munich law firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl (WSW) on how diocese officials deal with cases of sexualised violence.
Woelki has so far withheld this because, according to some lawyers, it has "methodological deficiencies" and is therefore not legally secure.
According to information from the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger”, the report from Munich identified around 230 suspects and more than 270 victims.
Sharp reaction: Server collapsed due to enormous demand for church exits
The diocese of Cologne was confronted with a consequence of this news yesterday (February 19th, 2021): The demand for appointments for leaving the church was so high on Friday that the server of the Cologne District Court collapsed.
The court announced yesterday that the booking page could no longer be accessed.
"I can tell you that we had more or less 5000 access attempts," said a spokesman for the Cologne District Court on Friday.
Catholic Church in criticism: More and more church resignations
The demand for leaving the church had already risen rapidly in the past few weeks - for many Catholics leaving the church seems to have been an annual resolution.
Due to the increased demand, the court had already increased the number of bookable appointments from around 1,000 to 1,500 per month.
On Friday at 10.00 a.m. additional dates for the months of March and April were activated on the online site.
So many people apparently wanted to access this offer that the servers collapsed.
The debate about the inadequate processing of abuse in the Archdiocese of Cologne is apparently having an effect. The number of people leaving the church has risen in recent years. According to the district court, 6,960 Cologne residents turned their backs on their churches in 2020 and 10,073 in the previous year. The authority recorded 7,618 departures for 2018, 6,174 for 2017 and 5,759 for 2016.
(dpa / at)