According to a newspaper article, Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki has issued a new and thus third sworn affidavit in the press law dispute with the newspaper “Bild”.
Kardinal Woelki (Photo: © Raimond Spekking / CC BY SA 4.0)
Colony – According to a newspaper article, Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki has issued a new and thus third sworn affidavit in the press law dispute with the newspaper “Bild”. In it he said he was unaware of the allegations of abuse against former “Sternsinger” chairman Winfried Pilz until the end of June 2022, he said Official Gazette of the City of Cologne. The archbishop is accused of not informing the diocese of Dresden-Meissen in good time about Pilz, who had retired there.
According to the newspaper, in the affidavit the cardinal replies to the interview released by the former assistant to the directorate of personnel Hildegard Dahm, according to which in 2015 he had already drawn up a list of accused priests for a business meeting between his boss and the archbishop – including Pilz. Woelki writes: “I don’t remember receiving this list, taking note of this list, that is, looking at it.” So he didn’t even remember seeing the name mushroom on this list.
According to Dahm’s statement, the Cologne public prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation against Woelki on suspicion of perjury in a previous affidavit. The cardinal also stresses that he only learned of the Pilz case in June of this year.
Also in a second case, the Public Prosecutor’s Office is investigating Woelki for a possible false statement. This is Pastor D., accused of abuse and promoted by the archbishop in 2017. A hearing before the district court of Cologne in the press law case against the “Bild” was canceled last week due to the illness of a member of the House. According to the court, he was deferred from Wednesday to January 11. The former abuse manager of the Archdiocese of Cologne, Oliver Vogt, is to be heard as a witness.
Woelki defends himself with an affidavit against the representation of “Bild” which promoted D., although he knew incriminating contents from his personal file and a police warning. She has only heard of previous sexual contact between the man and a prostitute and “other rumours”. The priest previously held a position in the lower church leadership.
Longtime secretary to former Cologne cardinal Joachim Meisner was the first witness to be heard. He claimed to have already informed Woelki in 2010, when he was auxiliary bishop in Cologne, of the priest’s sauna visits with acolytes and obscene comments about young people. However, secretary Meisner also explained that she had not seen either the personnel file or the police notice and therefore she did not discuss it with Woelki.
D., who has been on leave in the meantime, can now work again as a priest, but under certain conditions. In an ecclesiastical criminal proceeding, he was acquitted of the charges against him. According to the archdiocese, however, he is not permitted to work in the children’s and youth sector, in parish ministry or in a managerial position.
