Status: 11/09/2022 1:53 p.m
After a former employee of the Archdiocese’s human resources department heavily incriminated the cardinal, the Cologne public prosecutor’s office is now investigating Rainer Maria Cardinal Woelki.
A former employee has accused the Cologne Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of having been informed early on about allegations of abuse against the former Sternsinger boss Winfried Pilz. Woelki had declared in two affidavits in court that he had only dealt with abuse allegations against Winfried Pilz in June of this year. In an interview with the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger”, the former assistant to the head of human resources in the archdiocese says that she had already drawn up a list of previous abusers for the cardinal in 2015 and dealt with the cardinal personally.
She “couldn’t stand it any longer (…) to know things firsthand that contradict Cardinal Woelki’s public statements, especially in the case of the former Sternsinger President Winfried Pilz,” says the former assistant to the head of human resources in the archdiocese of the Newspaper.
Employee made a list of 14 names
The list she created contained 14 names, including Pilz’s. Her boss took the list to a conversation with Woelki. Afterwards she asked her boss what Woelki had said about the list. He replied: “That didn’t interest the cardinal at all.” She was then “petrified”.
When asked whether she feared consequences under labor law for going public, the woman told the newspaper: “If the archdiocese should try that, then that’s the way it is.” However, she asks a counter question, namely whether the employer has no duties of loyalty. “I think the way the archbishop is dealing with the facts here and not even attempting to create clarity internally, that is a disregard for the commitment and good work of the employees.” What the archbishop says is disloyal – also to her as the author of the list.
Archdiocese does not comment –
The Archdiocese shared that WDR upon request that they would not be able to comment until the allegations had been fully researched. The public prosecutor’s office in Cologne started formal investigations on Wednesday, according to chief public prosecutor Ulf Willuhn.
After several criminal charges against Cardinal Woelki on suspicion of making false statements, the Cologne public prosecutor’s office had not yet recognized sufficient suspicion against the archbishop and therefore rejected the initiation of preliminary proceedings at the end of September.
The WDR local time published about this topic Cologne reported on 11/08/2022.
Source: wdr.de