Cardinal's list of abusing clerics mysteriously disappears

Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki's handling of abuse allegations continues to raise questions. In 2015, a few months after taking office, the Archbishop of Cologne had a list of names of Cologne priests compiled against whom allegations of abuse had been made in the past, as the archdiocese informed the Catholic News Agency (KNA) in July. Whether the name of a nationwide prominent clergyman was on this list, however, could no longer be determined today "because the list no longer exists".

Specifically, the request was about the case of the former "Sternsinger" (Carol Singers- a charity) chief Winfried Pilz, who died in 2019. In 2012, the Archdiocese of Cologne learned of allegations against him. In 2014, Woelki's predecessor, Cardinal Joachim Meisner, reprimanded the clergyman, fined him and banned him from contact with minors.

Pilz with Merkel

However, this ban was probably insufficiently or not at all controlled. In 2014, Pilz was already living as a retired clergyman in the Diocese of Dresden-Meissen. According to their own information, those responsible there only learned of the allegations in the second half of June 2022, after the Archdiocese of Cologne and the children's missionary organisation "Die Sternsinger" had made the accusations public. The publication was intended to find other possible victims, because in 2021 the Archdiocese of Cologne had received further information about Pilz.

The KNA has an affidavit from Cardinal Woelki, according to which he was only involved in the Pilz case from the fourth week of June 2022. It is dated 4 August. About a month earlier, the Cologne press office had informed the CBA: "When exactly Cardinal Woelki learned of the suspicion of abuse against Msgr P. cannot be said with absolute certainty". The abbreviation "Msgr. P." stands for "Monsignor" Pilz, an honorary title in the Catholic Church.

According to the press office, the submission of the list in 2015 was "in no way connected with access to individual files". It was only after the so-called MHG study - a nationwide abuse investigation by the church - was published in 2018 that Woelki ordered a review of "all files" in his Archdiocese. "This review later also resulted in the charges filed by the archdiocese against Msgr P," the Archdiocese said in July.

For Woelki, the press office continued, "there was in any case no indication to assume that the Diocese of Dresden-Meissen had not been informed". In December 2018, the Archdiocese had subsequently handed over the files to the Public Prosecutor's Office, according to the abuse investigation conducted by the law firm Gercke Wollschläger in 2021.

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