Politician demands that German bishops must explain themselves! She's had enough!

FDP politician Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann demands that Cardinal Woelki of Cologne suspend his office because of the Public Prosecutor's investigation against him.

Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (65, FDP) is taking German bishops to task. Her demand: they should take a stand in the cover-up scandal surrounding Cologne Cardinal Rainer Woelki (66).

The chairwoman of the defence committee of the Bundestag told BILD reporters: "The Bishops' Conference wants to have a say in all political issues. Only in the Woelki case does it remain silent: That is not possible! The German bishops must explain themselves."

The Cologne public prosecutor's office has been investigating Cardinal Woelki since November. Since this week, yet another accusation has been included in the investigation: Suspicion of perjury! This concerns a sworn statement made by Woelki before the Regional Court of Cologne, which appears to the investigators to be implausible. Woelki took legal action against BILD reporting on his role in covering up abuse cases.

Strack-Zimmermann calls herself a "devout Catholic" from Düsseldorf. She regrets the loss of trust for the Church. Soberly, she states, "The damage caused by Woelki's behaviour is immense." Strack-Zimmermann had "long wished that Woelki would give up his office". She demands: "At the latest now that the Public Prosecutor's office is investigating him for a perjury crime, he would have to rest his office as archbishop."

Meanwhile, the media present new documents that cast doubt on Woelki's statement. For example, WDR and KNA reported on the minutes of a two-day meeting with Woelki in September 2022, according to which Woelki is said to have personally told leading regional church representatives about a letter to the Vatican and the response from Rome. The letter, signed by Woelki, is about the abuse allegations of a person concerned, a certain Mr H., against the former Düsseldorf deputy city dean.

Despite signing the letter, Woelki had testified under oath in court in March: "To date, no one has told me anything about Mr H's allegations."

The Diocese has told media it does not want to comment on the confidential meeting.

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By way of background on this politician's religious belief- an interview she gave.

"I think God is a real liberal"

Dr. Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann

Dr. Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann is a politician and publicist. She was First Mayor of the City of Düsseldorf from 2008 to 2014. She has been a member of the German Bundestag since 2017, where she is the spokesperson for defence and municipal policy for the parliamentary group of the Free Democrats. I have known Dr Strack-Zimmermann for many years as a practising Catholic and know that she was also Chair of the Parish Council of the Catholic parish of St Margareta in Düsseldorf for a long time.

I am pleased to have been able to ask Dr Strack-Zimmermann the following questions.

In an earlier interview with the Westdeutsche Zeitung, you said that you attend services in a Catholic church every Sunday. To what extent does your faith influence your political actions?

Dr Strack-Zimmermann: I have to elaborate a bit:

I believe in God because I am sure that there must be something "higher", "greater" - anything else, incidentally, I would also find frightening! In this respect, faith in God plays an important role not only in my personal life - but also in my political work. I certainly have moral ideas about life, and they always flow into my work. By the way, I am quite sure that God is a true liberal at heart. He has put man in a position to take his life into his own hands according to his own free will and ultimately also given him the freedom to act on his own responsibility!

For me, the morally acceptable is the compass of my actions.

When I make political decisions, it therefore also plays a role for me what I personally consider morally justifiable. For me, this is the compass of my actions, which I have received from my grandparents and parents since childhood.

If I am convinced of something, I can certainly fight hard for it, I also love clear language, but that has nothing to do with morals, but rather how I treat other people, especially if they are weaker. There are values and they should be the basis for a functioning society. Bottom line: Yes, faith subconsciously shapes my work. There is such a fundamental thing that I would do and that I would never do, because I believe that there must always be limits, even if politics is often a "chirpy" business.

Were there moments in your political life when you struggled to make the right decision and relied on the power and help of prayer?

Dr Strack-Zimmermann: I have often relied on the power of prayer, especially in situations that challenged me strongly and in which I thought "Dear God, what is going on here?". But was there ever a concrete situation in which I asked myself whether I should go this way or that way and let prayer show me the way? Possibly, but I can't remember a specific topic. As a rule, I know relatively quickly what I want.

I can imagine that the many offices and functions you hold leave you little room for private things. Do you still find time for prayer?

Dr Strack-Zimmermann: Yes, I find the time, but not in the sense that I go to church and kneel there and pray. There are moments, for example, when I am on the road, when I sometimes have a dialogue with God and then have the good feeling of being accompanied. Or more concretely, when I am skiing in the Alps, for example, and see the gifted beauty of the mountains; then I often think: "My God, what an incredibly beautiful world you have created!"

In the meantime, I am a grandmother of three and every time the births were due, I thought: dear God, let everything go well, let mother and child be healthy! In such a situation, which is of course incredibly emotional and personal, I find myself in constant dialogue with God.

I know that you have three children who have grown up in the meantime. What role has common prayer played in your family?

Dr Strack-Zimmermann: When the children were small, I regularly took them to church services. I celebrated church festivals and accompanied them as servers. To put it bluntly, I did the whole programme.

Even though my children, who are now grown up, no longer go to church regularly, I still have the wonderful experience that this imprint is still present, for example at weddings, funerals, baptisms or other festive days.

How would you continue the following sentence? "Prayer for me is..."

Dr Strack-Zimmermann: For me, prayer is having a dialogue with God.

Sometimes I offer God a "deal".

I admit to having a very childlike faith. I thank God when something great has happened, when I am happy about a success. I thank him that he has given me a lot of strength on my life's journey, by the way, to deal with defeats in a relaxed way. And sometimes I offer him a "deal" when that happens ..., then I do that... Doesn't always work, but it's worth a try!

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