Pope Francis confirms the Archbishop of Cologne Germany Cardinal Rainer Woelki

The Vatican has confirmed the Archbishop of Cologne, Germany, Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, in office. This was announced on September 24 by the Apostolic Nuncio of Germany, Bishop Nikola Eterovic.

However, at his “request”, Cardinal Woelki will take a “spiritual sabbatical” of several months before resuming an active ministry.

In addition, the Vatican will not accept the resignations of the two auxiliary bishops of Cologne, Bishop Ansgar Puff and Bishop Dominik Schwaderlapp, either.

Bishop Puff will return directly to the service of the Archdiocese, while the Pope has accepted Bishop Schwaderlapp’s request “to be able to work for a year as pastor in the Archdiocese of Mombasa, Kenya”.

Según informed a comunicado de la Santa Sede, during the visita apostólica no se encontraron pruebas de que el Cardenal Woelki haya “actuado de forma ilegal al tratar los casos de abusos sexuales” y reconoció que Woelki tuvo una reevaluación ejemplar, important pero hay Communication”.

“The accusations that the cardinal wanted to cover up, in particular by initially hiding a first study, are rejected by the facts which have since been published and the documents examined by the Holy See”, indicates the official note.

In addition, the statement underlined “the Archbishop’s determination to take responsibility for crimes of abuse in the Church, to reach out to those affected and to promote prevention is also manifested in the implementation of the recommendations of the second study, which has already started “.

However, Cardinal Woelki made “major errors in his approach to the issue of reaching an agreement as a whole, especially at the level of communication” and this contributed to a “crisis of confidence” in the Archdiocese of Cologne. .

For this reason, the Pope authorized the Cardinal “at his own request, a spiritual sabbatical leave”. This will begin “in mid-October” and end “at the start of the Easter penitential season next year”.

Until Cardinal Woelki’s return, the Auxiliary Bishop of Cologne, Mgr Rolf Steinhäuser, will lead the archdiocese as full apostolic administrator to ensure “good administration”. In addition to ensuring that the archdiocese finds the way towards a spiritual process of reconciliation and renewal ”.

Visit to the Archdiocese of Cologne

Pope Francis made this decision after an apostolic visit to the a

Archdiocese of Cologne, which ended in June.

As CNA Deutsch (German agency of the ACI group) reports, a previous report on abuses presented in March exonerated Cardinal Woelki, while auxiliary bishops Bishop Ansgar Puff and Bishop Dominik Schwaderlapp were temporarily released.

During the apostolic visit, Cardinal Anders Arborelius, of Stockholm, and Mgr Johannes van den Hende, Bishop of Rotterdam, investigated “possible mistakes” made in their handling of cases of sexual abuse by Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki , Mgr Stefan Heße, Archbishop of Hamburg, and the Auxiliary Bishops of Cologne, Mgr Dominikus Schwaderlapp and Mgr Ansgar Puff.

Translated and adapted by Mercedes De La Torre. Originally posted on CNA Deutsch