The cardinal speaks, and his long, lanky body speaks. Cologne’s Archbishop Rainer Maria Woelki faces journalists in the archbishop’s garden in the cathedral city for exactly three minutes and twenty seconds. Autumn leaves lie on the lawn, the wind gently blows through the trees. The cardinal tells the microphones how to proceed – with the largest diocese in Germany, with himself. The man in the dark suit reports that in a conversation in Rome he asked the Pope “for a longer break”. And he adds that his Holy Father has now granted him this break. Woelki wants and is allowed to remain silent for four and a half months, from mid-October to early March.
It seems as if the cardinal is about to begin his penitential silence. Questions from journalists were not planned. But then someone asks: where Woelki is going now, and “are you really coming back? but the next question holds him back again: How does he want to “regain the trust of the faithful” after his silence? Woelki’s body wants to talk, his head tilts again towards the microphones, he nods – but he can no longer utter a word . Departure.
Is this the end of an unprecedented crisis – or did Rome just press the pause button? Months have passed since the Apostolic Visitators Anders Arborelius and Hans van den Hende visited the Archdiocese. You should report to the Pope about the broken relationship between the pastor and his faithful, about the complaints of the priests and deacons, about the “complex pastoral situation”. They spoke to the current and former members of the Advisory Council on those fatal days in October 2020, when Woelki and his vicar general overturned the first abuse report.
Remarkable sentences can be found in the letter of the Holy Father about dealing with abuse in the Archdiocese of Cologne – the starting point of the crisis: “The Archbishop’s determination to deal with the crimes of abuse in the church, to turn to those affected and to promote prevention is shown not least in the implementation of the recommendations of the second study, which he has already started, “it says. At the level of communication, however, he “made big mistakes,” the Pope says. But “the Holy Father is counting on Cardinal Woelki, he recognizes his loyalty to the Holy See and his concern for the unity of the Church”. The last half-sentence can be understood as a hint to the Synodal Way, the reform debate between clerics and laypeople, which Rome views with skepticism. Woelki is also critical of the Synodal Way. It’s also about power architecture.
The note from Rome leaves many of those affected “perplexed and injured,” says Georg Bätzing
The chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference, Georg Bätzing, reacts cautiously to the Roman letter: “What is said in the note about the determination of Cardinal Woelki’s will to come to terms with it applies on the one hand, on the other hand it leaves many affected people perplexed and injured in view of the situation that has arisen”, he says. Whether there could be a fundamentally changed situation in Cologne within a few months, “I am unable to judge,” said Bätzing. The decision in favor of Woelki reminded him “in some ways of the Roman approach with regard to my predecessor in Limburg”.
His name was Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst and in the end he was a similar attraction in the diocese as Woelki in Cologne. The house of the “Protz-Bishop”, as he was called, costing 31 million euros, is what Bätzing sees on the Domberg every day. Tebartz-van Elst had also given Francis a break. But he did not return from this; today he is the Apostolic Delegate in the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization in the Vatican.
Should Woelki return after his break? For Tim Kurzbach, Solingen’s Lord Mayor and Chairman of the Diocesan Council, it is not decisive who heads the diocese: “Time out does not solve a problem,” Kurzbach told the SZ. “I wish Mr. Woelki a good time, like every person who needs a break. But it is not about a bishop, it is about urgently needed reforms of the Church. Without a solution to these issues, there is no solution to the whole problem. ” The diocesan council had put the cooperation with Woelki on hold due to the deep crisis of confidence in January.
Sharp criticism of the Pope’s decision also comes from the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK): “The instrument of a break is not enough,” said ZdK President Thomas Sternberg. In politics, resigning from office could help initiate changes. Such a renewal process would now be prevented. If there is no trust-building process, “the Woelki case is not yet settled” https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/. “This delay is absolutely unacceptable and damages the credibility of the Church more than it benefits it”, says Agnes Wuckelt, the vice-head of the Catholic women’s community in Germany (kfd).
Patrick Bauer, resigned spokesman for the Affected Advisory Council, is not that critical: “I said after the visit that I would rather a clear signal from the Pope that Woelki had done something wrong than that he should simply be recalled,” says Bauer of the SZ. “I would like Woelki to really understand what he did wrong during his time to think it over.”
The new first man in the archbishopric will be Rolf Steinhäuser, previously Auxiliary Bishop, from mid-October – he will be the so-called administrator. Pope Francis has also rejected the offers of resignation from the auxiliary bishops Ansgar Puff and Dominikus Schwaderlapp, who were charged in the abuse report. You can come back, but Schwaderlapp is doing a few months as a “simple priest” in the diocese of Mombasa in Kenya at his own request. “It became clear to me that there can be no simple ‘business as usual'”, said Schwaderlapp. Auxiliary Bishop Puff said that he had worked in an old people’s center and in pastoral care for the homeless over the past few months. “With some people I have destroyed trust through my breach of duty; in the future I want to work and live in such a way that people can trust me again,” he said. He also announced that he would donate part of his salary to victims of abuse.
Woelki had also shown himself to be quite repentant in the garden: he had “made mistakes with regard to communication,” says the cardinal and apologizes to the believers: “I’m sorry, I regret that.” Woelki frowns when he reports what previous victims of sexual abuse in the church have told him – that they have been “retraumatized again by his actions in the past few months:” I am sincerely sorry and painful. And yes, he acknowledges: “The whole thing has also led to a crisis of confidence in the diocese.”
Woelki was silent on the question of trust this Friday. Can he even regain trust? It all depends on Woelki himself, says Tim Kurzbach: “If you don’t really love people, you can’t be a priest or a bishop.”