Data from shredded list of abusers miraculously retrieved

Archdiocese of Cologne: Data from shredded list not gone

The Archdiocese of Cologne has shredded a list of suspected abusers. Now it is known: The data is available elsewhere. The criticism of Cardinal Woelki continues.

According to the Archdiocese of Cologne, all data from a shredded Excel spreadsheet with abusers is still available. The "Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger" on Saturday quoted from a reply of the Archdiocese, according to which "the physical as well as the digital list only contained data that is available elsewhere anyway and to this day". So no data had been lost by shredding the printed list and deleting the digital one.

Poster appearing on Marienplatz in Munich this week

Why were offender lists destroyed?

It is no longer known who created the Excel list for Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki in 2015. The original files from which the list of perpetrators had been "filtered out" in 2015 were "properly stored in the places prescribed for this purpose". The question of how the destruction of the list of perpetrators was compatible with regulations on the archiving of sensitive documents had been assessed by the archdiocese as not "sufficiently specific" and thus not "capable of admission", the newspaper continued.

The Archdiocese had confirmed on Wednesday in response to a query from the Catholic News Agency (KNA) that a list from 2015 with the names of priests accused of sexual violence had been shredded after Cardinal Woelki had looked through it. This step had been taken for data protection reasons, he said.

"Cardinal Woelki has no recollection of which names were even on the list consulted more than seven years ago," it continued: "He also does not know whether the list was complete with regard to priests accused of abuse." It had been an Excel spreadsheet showing the names of the accused clerics and the respective payments made to those affected by abuse. The document did not contain information on the concrete accusations and the status of the proceedings.

No measures against accused priests

In 2015, the Archbishop had not taken any measures against the persons named on the list, as the specialised offices of the archdiocese had already dealt with the cases and the list had been processed. "Cardinal Woelki trusted in the proper work of the competent, independent and qualified intervention agency," the archdiocese continued.

In July, it had become known that the Archdiocese of Cologne had forwarded allegations of abuse against the former "Sternsinger" chief Winfried Pilz only very late to the Diocese of Dresden-Meissen, where the priest spent his retirement. However, the Archdiocese does not see this as a breach of duty on Woelki's part, since the Cardinal had not known that the information had not been passed on under his predecessor Joachim Meisner. According to the archdiocese, Woelki no longer knows whether the name Pilz was on the 2015 list.

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