Leading priests in Cologne sharply critical of Cardinal Woelki

Catholic regional leaders in the Archdiocese of Cologne have sharply criticised Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki. If new accusations against him are true, "we are probably facing a new low point in the crisis of the Archdiocese of Cologne", Bonn City Deacon, Wolfgang Picken said on Tuesday.

The "Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger" had reported last week that Woelki's PR advisers had drafted plans for his "survival" in office at the end of 2020 at the height of the controversy over the handling of the abuse scandal in the Archdiocese of Cologne. It was already known that Woelki had spent 820,000 euros on PR consulting.

According to the report, the communication experts suggested to him to co-opt the Advisory Board of Victims of Sexual Abuse to his side in the dispute. According to the report, the victims should support his decision not to publish an initial expert opinion on how diocesan officials deal with allegations of sexual abuse of children because of legal concerns. Woelki should focus on "emotions, credibility and authenticity", the PR advisers said.

Picken called on Woelki to immediately comment on the newspaper report. "Should Cardinal Woelki really have implemented the named recommendations of his PR advisors, this could leave irreparable damage to the Cardinal's integrity and would be difficult to tolerate," Picken said.

The Cologne City Deacon, Robert Kleine, wrote in a Facebook post that if the account were true, it would amount to "a moral declaration of bankruptcy by the diocesan leadership towards the advisory board and all those affected". In view of the clamour and explosiveness, he could not understand "and certainly not accept" that the archdiocese did not want to make a statement on the confidential paper.