Bishop likens Cardinal to dead horse

DBK head Bätzing has a quarrel with the Archdiocese of Cologne

Georg Bätzing - Bishop of Limburg and Chairman of the German Bishops' Conference Georg Bätzing.

The Chairman of the Catholic German Bishops' Conference, Georg Bätzing, says he sometimes has problems with the conditions in the Archdiocese of Cologne. He said on Saturday at the Protestant Church Congress in Nuremberg that "there was no sign of a cultural change in Cologne".

Bätzing criticised that the archdiocese had neglected many aspects of dealing with cases of sexual abuse. "It does not help into the future."

He had also spoken several times with the conservative Archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, about his handling of accusations against him personally. But: "There are people you can talk to like a dead horse" - without anything happening, Bätzing said.

The DBK president described the fact that reform projects within the Catholic Church, for which Bätzing also stands, repeatedly suffer setbacks as "gruelling". "There is also the fact that I would describe myself as a good conservative," he said. "Then to realise that you can understand conservative in a completely different way," he said, which is a challenge.

"We have brothers and sisters that we didn't seek out, that God puts alongside us," Bätzing said, stressing, "Building bridges is what I stand for and what I want."

In the debate on the prevention of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, he spoke in favour of reflecting on compulsory celibacy. Personally, he was "a convinced celibate". But: "It would be no harm at all to the Catholic Church if there were married priests."

The Catholic Church had already done a lot to deal with cases of abuse and he did not want to distract from the scandal, Bätzing emphasised - but he also criticised the politicians: they had "not yet taken on the task of addressing the issue of abuse as a topic for society as a whole".

CDU leader Friedrich Merz had previously criticised at the church congress that it was incomprehensible "that a church is not in a position to come to terms with this". There are still attempts to "cover up, to trivialise, to conceal".

"Especially an institution like the Catholic Church must be able to deal with something like this appropriately," Merz said. And: "Just look at what is going on in the Archdiocese of Cologne."

Source

Cathcon: I bet he did not speak to his old deputy, Bishop Bode like this who resigned over the way he handled abuse cases.