Cardinal Woelki: Another document puts him in trouble – politics

The Archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, is getting deeper and deeper into trouble. Not only has the public prosecutor’s office in Cologne been investigating him since Wednesday because of an initial suspicion of perjury. In the meantime, another document has emerged that heavily incriminates the archbishop; it is available to WDR and the Catholic News Agency.

These are the minutes of a two-day meeting between Woelki and the city and district deans of the archdiocese in September 2022. According to media reports, this body of leading regional church representatives spoke in detail with Woelki about the case of a priest who was accused of abuse and whom Woelki in promoted in 2017.

He took an oath that didn’t have to be

Exactly that case is also the subject of a press law procedure between Woelki and the Axel Springer publishing house. At the end of April, Woelki was right in the first instance; however, because Springer appealed on April 26, the verdict is not yet final.

In the proceedings, Woelki was summoned on March 28 as a witness on his own behalf. Before the 28th Civil Chamber of the Cologne Regional Court, which is responsible for press matters, he faced a so-called party hearing: The cardinal defended himself against representations by the Picturehe promoted the priest as archbishop in 2017, although he was already aware of serious allegations against the churchman.

Woelki specifically denied having known two documents incriminating the priest. One was about the protocol with allegations by a 35-year-old witness who had already made allegations against the priest in 2010. The second document was a police report from 2001 that alerted the church to the priest’s contacts with a 16-year-old prostitute and warned that the churchman should no longer be used in youth work.

Woelki won in the first instance (AZ 28 O 293). But at the same time, with his statement of March 28, he got himself into new trouble. Unnecessary in the matter and even under oath. At the end of his party hearing, the representatives of Springer Verlag had demanded that Woelki swear an oath. “I swear, so help me God,” said the cardinal. And went.

And he said more than he should have said

In doing so, however, Woelki sworn a statement that could now be fatal to him as perjury. Right at the beginning of his interrogation, Woelki had said more than was asked of him. The cardinal not only emphasized his ignorance of the records up to 2017 – but also up to the present. Judge Dirk Esser da Silva read the witness again on his own behalf what he wanted to record: “I have not seen the two documents that are at issue here.” Until today, i.e. until March 28, 2023, not seen? Woelki approved the quote, and the note has been on file ever since.

Four weeks later, criminal charges were filed against Woelki on suspicion of perjury. The author of the ad referred to a letter from Woelkis to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome from 2018, in which he reported on the allegations against the priest and asked for further instructions.

How does it come about that the archbishop, in court, claimed that he had not read the relevant documents on the accused priest, but sent a detailed letter to Rome two years earlier? The Archdiocese of Cologne replied that although Woelki had signed the letter, he could not remember reading it in detail.

The protocol that has now emerged raises doubts about this account: According to these transcripts, Woelki is said to have reported to the dean last year about exactly that letter to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 2018. The archbishop later even reported an answer from Rome. When asked by SZ, the Archdiocese of Cologne referred to the confidentiality of the meeting and did not want to comment on the minutes.

According to Section 154 of the Criminal Code, perjury in court is punishable by imprisonment for not less than one year.

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