Public Prosecutor’s Office: Investigations into the second case against Cardinal Woelki – Politics

The dean of the city of Bonn, Picken, spoke of a “black Wednesday” for the archdiocese. The second procedure leaves horror and silence everywhere. Many wondered in “shock” where the crisis associated with Woelki would lead. “The church’s credibility and reputation are increasingly damaged by the conflict surrounding Cardinal Woelki. The Catholic Church and the Archdiocese of Cologne will not recover from this serious loss of image for years,” Picken said. This leads to a high level of frustration and paralysis among many believers and officials. “From today it will become even more difficult to hold the office of bishop in the archdiocese of Cologne with the necessary authority”.

Investigate other cases

Two weeks ago, the Cologne prosecutor’s office had already started investigations against Woelki in another case, also on suspicion of a false sworn statement. The trigger was an interview with the “Stadt-Anzeiger” in Cologne, in which the former assistant director of personnel of the archdiocese said that he had informed Woelki early on of the allegations of abuse against former Sternsinger boss Winfried Pilz . Woelki rejects this accusation.

Meanwhile, the president of the Evangelical Church of the Rhineland, Thorsten Latzel, has canceled the traditional ecumenical vespers scheduled for next Sunday, according to reports from the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger”. “The service at the beginning of Advent is overshadowed by the events in the Archdiocese of Cologne in such a way that one no longer perceives the prayer or the announcement, but only the question of placement in the internal Catholic debate,” said the spokesman for Latzel, Jens -Peter Iven of the newspaper (Thursday). In the current situation, a celebration in the usual setting with an archbishop and president “is therefore not advisable according to the assessment of the church management”.

Woelki has long been criticized for his handling of abuse cases in the archdiocese. Pope Francis had asked him to tender his resignation, which Woelki did. However, the Pope has not yet decided whether to accept the request.