Another child sexual abuse scandal hits the German Catholic Church

“The most serious crisis” in the history of the German Catholic Church. This is how newspapers treat Germany the scandal caused by the refusal of the Archbishop of Cologne, Rainer Maria Woelki, to publish a report on sexual abuse of minors committed by members of his diocese between 1975 and 2018.

The diocese of Cologne is the largest and richest in Germany, one of the European countries with an opulent Catholic church.

A Woelki criticism rains it and the chair moves. The Diocesan Council of Cologne, in which the religious and secular authorities sit, decided at the end of January that the Archbishop no longer had their confidence.

“The way (Woelki) behaves at the head of the archdiocese is incredible, especially as our Church is going through the most serious crisis in its history. As a moral authority, the Archdiocese of Cologne has seriously failed, ”said the president of the Diocesan Council, the social democratic mayor of Solingen – in the same lander as Cologne -, Tim Kurzbach.

This withdrawal of confidence occurred because Woelki decided not to publish the report, that a Munich law firm had established.

The Archbishop considers that the document has “serious methodological flaws”, but it was done in the same way as others on other dioceses which have already been published without anyone questioning the quality of the research and the methodology used for its drafting.

Accused of camouflage

Woelki is also accused of not having denounced before the common justice or communicated to the Vatican the case of a priest in Düsseldorf who for decades, at least between 1971 and 1996, abused minors of both sexes. Woelki I would have known about this abuse for years and I wouldn’t have opened my mouth denounce the priest.

Angela Merkel’s government has already started to act on the issue. Johannes-Wilhelm Röring, his person in charge of monitoring issues of sexual abuse against minors, said that the Archbishop’s behavior “discredits the work of soul-searching to which the Catholic Church as a whole is engaged” .

Woelki’s criticisms come from the top of the German Catholic hierarchy. Cardinal Archbishop of Munich Reinhard Marx told the newspaper last week General of Augsburg that “the consequences of this scandal are extremely negative for everyone. For the Catholic Church, the damage is considerable ”.

Marx also said he would not prevent the forthcoming publication of a similar report, on his diocese of Munich, for child sexual abuse committed between 1945 and 2019.

Reinhard Marx is one of the European cardinals most likely to one day succeed Pope Francis to the Vatican throne and was president of the German Bishops’ Conference between 2014 and 2020.

Renovation plans

The Woelki scandal weakens the German Catholic Church, who after years of sex scandals has tried to raise its head with the pandemic.

In various forums, German bishops and archbishops have discussed deep reforms of its internal organization, to the point of proposing that all its pastors and bishops be democratically elected by all the faithful. Also important administrative and economic reforms to make its economic management more transparent and modern.

The German bishops – in connection with associations of the faithful – They also mentioned the celibacy of priests and the place of women in religious celebrations and in the structures and hierarchies of the Catholic Church. But cases of sexual abuse continue to hamper his change strategy, and behaviors like Woelki’s discredit the sincerity of the promised change.

Woelki, 64, admits his mistakes and says he will shoulder his responsibilities but has no plans to release a report that could include the names of dozens of pastors who have sexually abused minors for decades. And he promises the publication of another document, commissioned by himself from another law firm, this time not from Munich, but from his city, Cologne.

The German Catholic Church is losing its followers by push. It was not until 2019, according to various media, that 272,000 people stopped ticking the Catholic Church’s box on their tax return.

Germans are free to decide where 5 to 10% of their taxes go by checking a box for a name or cultural organization. This formula has made the German Catholic Church the richest in Europe, but the loss of the faithful can leave it destitute.

Brussels, special

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