Status: 08/15/2022 3:45 p.m
The Cologne Cardinal Woelki is attacked in an open letter: For the first time, 21 employees of the diocese speak out and accuse their boss of having lost their last trust.
“We, the undersigned, are affected and appalled. We are outraged by the recent revelations about the communication strategy of the cardinal and his management staff,” write the priests, pastoral officers and other employees in the diocese, supplementing their criticism with many individual statements. The crisis has now reached an unimaginable low point. A statement by Woelki’s deputy, Vicar General Guido Assmann, was “in no way able to cope”.
Not worthy of a cardinal
Commissioning a communications agency alone is not reprehensible. However, the strategy proposed by the agency is unacceptable. “To implement them one-to-one is not worthy of a Catholic Christian and certainly not worthy of a cardinal,” explains Ingrid Kloß, deputy diocesan chairwoman of the Catholic Women’s Community.
influencing those affected
The core of the crisis of confidence is the dispute over an expert opinion on sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Cologne. It was practically finished when the cardinal and his advisers decided not to publish it. Woelki justifies this with deficiencies in content and legal expression, which the experts rejected.
Questionable PR strategy
Research by the Kölner Stadtanzeiger has now shown that the external PR strategists were planning to influence the advisory board for those affected in order to get their approval for non-publication. In the end, those affected agreed. Also a joint press release with the diocese, with which the cardinal and his staff were able to underpin their about-face.
Perspective of those affected is missing
The employees now write in their letter: “We agree with the statements of those affected: the Advisory Board for Affected Persons was used as an instrument in the dispute over the reports. It was and is not clear that the perspective of those affected was and is the guiding principle.”
The statement that the view of those affected should guide action was emphasized by Vicar General Assmann in his letter to employees on Thursday. The Archdiocese has not yet responded to a recent request for a statement.
No longer a requirement for dialogue
If many employees were still willing to accept the cardinal’s offers of talks, this could now change: “For me, the prerequisite for a dialogue with the management around Archbishop Woelki is no longer given,” explains Regina Oediger-Spinrath, spokeswoman for the professional association the pastoral advisors.
Pastors are also critical
Some pastors also signed the letter. They are in a particular conflict, which Klaus Thranberend describes as follows: “I am reaching my limit in terms of my vow of obedience to the bishop and I ask myself what I have pledged allegiance to.” The pastoral officer Peter Otten adds: “The diocese leadership primarily has its own power in view. This action is cynical and traumatizes those affected again and again”.
The undersigned call for power in the diocese to be shared and better controlled in the future. This is a demand that many lay people in the Church also raise. So far, however, it has been the case that in the end the bishop can decide alone in each diocese. Only individual bishops indicate that they could imagine serious changes.
The letter ends with the call to “stand up and stand up for all those affected and for one Churchwhich takes care of the people and rebels against abuse of power.”
According to the “abuse report” by the Archdiocese of Cologne: Interview with the person concerned, Karl Haucke
Image: WDR
The first reactions to the letter came from Karl Haucke, one of those affected, who also said at the time that the cardinal had misused him and others for his purposes. Haucke told WDR that this letter was very important to him: “So far it has been a few resistant laypeople who have rebelled.” Now, for the first time, priests and pastoral advisors have said that they feel used. Haucke’s hope: “Maybe that will lead to open rebellion in the next step.”
The Woelki critic and spokeswoman for the reform initiative Maria 2.0, Maria Mesrian, spoke of a “strong sign.” She told the WDR: “If the full-time officials distance themselves from Cardinal Woelki, then the shepherd is without a flock.” She couldn’t imagine how he would then want to carry out his official business. No matter how the Pope decides about him.
The canon lawyer Thomas Schüller from Münster spoke of another piece of the jigsaw on WDR. This is bad for the cardinal in terms of symbolic politics, but legally it is not a problem for him.
The local time from Cologne reports on this topic on August 15, 2022 on radio on WDR2 and on WDR television.
Source: wdr.de