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Status: 03/18/2021 12:35 pm
When it comes to allegations of abuse in the Archdiocese of Cologne, Cardinal Meisner and Archbishop Heße in particular are said to have violated their duties. This is the result of a new report. Cardinal Woelki is exonerated.
After months of debate, an expert opinion was presented on the handling of abuse cases in the Archdiocese of Cologne. It is a burden for the current Archbishop of Hamburg Stefan Heße, the Auxiliary Bishop of Cologne Dominikus Schwaderlapp and the former Vicar General Norbert Feldhoff of Cologne. It is said that he has violated his duties in dealing with the abuse allegations.
Rainer Maria Cardinal Woelki, Archdiocese of Cologne, “I am convinced that the action must also have consequences for the clergy.”
tagesschau24 11:00 am, March 18, 2021
Most of the breaches of duty, however, are in the case of Cardinal Joachim Meisner, who died in 2017. A third of all the breaches of duty identified, that is, 24, go to his account, said the criminal lawyer Björn Gercke presenting his report. Therefore, they are charged with eleven breaches of duty. Most of these are abuse cases that have not been properly treated. In the case of Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne, however, he did not see any breach of duty, Gercke said.
Two employees immediately released from their duties.
Shortly after the presentation of the report, Woelki announced that he was temporarily releasing Schwaderlapp and another employee from their official duties due to the allegations: “Therefore, I would also like to get out of the situation at this time and also on the basis of Lo What I am doing here, I heard that the aforementioned, Auxiliary Bishop Schwaderlapp and Mr. Officer Assenmacher, are temporarily relieved of their duties with immediate effect. ”
Gercke’s report is already the second on how the archdiocese has dealt with allegations of abuse. Woelki is keeping the first report from a Munich law firm under lock and key, citing legal concerns. This behavior had caused a crisis of confidence in the largest German diocese.
Notes on 202 suspects
In his report, Gercke found hints of 202 suspects in connection with the abuse allegations. He said so when he presented the 800-page investigation. This is the first expert opinion of this type, in which the names of those responsible are also mentioned without blackening. Together with his team, Gercke had evaluated the church archives from 1975 to 2018.
Most of the victims were children. 63 percent of the accused are clerics, that is, priests. The number of victims is 314. In almost 32 percent of the cases it was sexual abuse, in a good 15 percent serious sexual abuse. Gercke classifies the other cases as boundary violations and other sexual misconduct.
According to the expert, important files were missing
In presenting his report, Gercke criticized the diocese’s record keeping as grossly inadequate. “We found significant deficiencies in the organization of the archives and the management of the archives in the archdiocese. It gave us the impression that some archives were missing parts of the archives because the performance of the procedure was incomprehensible,” he said. The evaluation of the files showed, among other things, “that for decades apparently no one has dared to report such cases.”
