Travails of Cardinal Woelki continue

The plebiscitary fever curve continues to rise. But now at a much slower pace. When we last checked the change.org website, there were 61,595 signatories sharing a petition against Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki online. At times, it seemed as if more or less half the Archdiocese (its membership was recently at a good 1.6 million Catholics) was rallying against its shepherd. But the interest in protest seems to have waned somewhat.

The signatories are concerned with fundamental issues: "Cardinal Woelki is – and this can be said – now a shepherd without a flock and largely alienated from the faithful of his archdiocese. One can remain in office pro forma – but this will have no resonance at all," Münster-based canon lawyer Thomas Schüller tells us.

Origin: Rainer Maria Cardinal Woelki is the 95th Bishop of the Archdiocese of Cologne. He was born in Cologne on August 18, 1956.

The Priest: He was ordained a priest in 1985 in Cologne Cathedral. He also served as an auxiliary bishop in the archdiocese from 2003 to 2011. In 2000, Woelki received his doctorate in theology in Rome.

The Archbishop: From 2011 to 2014, he served as Archbishop of Berlin. In 2012, Pope Benedict XVI (1927-2022) elevated him to cardinal. Rainer Maria Cardinal Woelki has been Archbishop of Cologne since September 20, 2014. His motto is "Nos sumus testes" - "We are witnesses."

Time Out and Offer of Resignation: In the wake of a massive crisis of confidence, the Pope sent two visitors to Cologne in June 2021. On September 24, 2021, it was announced that Woelki would take a "spiritual sabbatical" lasting several months. On March 2, 2022, Woelki returned and announced in a pastoral letter that he had offered his resignation to Pope Francis. The Pope let the three-month canonical deadline for a decision expire.

Thomas Schüller is one of the first signatories of the petition because, in his opinion, the ongoing crisis is no longer beneficial for the diocese: "Because how can things continue in the archdiocese for another nine years with Cardinal Woelki? It will then be a dead diocese."

Proceedings against Woelki finally dropped

What happened most recently? After almost two years of investigation by the public prosecutor's office, the proceedings against Cardinal Woelki were finally dropped in return for a fine of €26,000. An investigation was conducted into possible false statements by Woelki regarding two abuse cases. These involved a so-called affidavit and a perjured oath – and specifically, the question of when Woelki knew about allegations of abuse against a priest.

Investigations against Cardinal Woelki are discontinued

However, the discontinuation of the proceedings by no means brought the discussion surrounding the cardinal to a close. Initially, the archdiocese announced that with the end of the proceedings, it had been clarified that Cardinal Woelki was "innocent and did not lie. He did not commit any false statements, in particular, perjury."

Senior Public Prosecutor Ulrich Bremer again responded to this interpretation with the rather irritated remark that "according to a preliminary assessment of the evidence by the public prosecutor's office and the regional court, a corresponding criminal conviction of the accused in court proceedings would have been likely" and that charges had only been waived because Woelki, as they say, "has not yet been involved in criminal proceedings."

Dismissal of the proceedings was not special treatment

Thus, two interpretations are confronted, neither of which accurately reflects the facts, since the question of whether Woelki committed perjury (which the public prosecutor's office considers likely and the Archdiocese considers unlikely) was simply not decided in court. However, the dismissal of the proceedings is not Cologne's special treatment of the archbishop, but is often applied in low-threshold criminal cases.

Canon lawyer Schüller remains to ask football fan Woelki: "If the public prosecutor's office serves you the ball on the penalty spot and you are spared a potentially embarrassing trial, then I must have the humility to say: 'Okay, I made a mistake here, and I want to do better in the future.' There probably wouldn't have been a petition then." Instead, Woelki declared himself innocent.

With the Cardinal and his critics, two victors appear to be leaving the field. They are Pyrrhic victories.

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