The protest was sparked by criticism in March directed at a priest from Mettmann, a town near Duesseldorf. He had conducted a "blessing ceremony for lovers," including same-sex couples.

According to the German news agency dpa, the Cologne archdiocese to which Mettmann belongs had reprimanded the priest and emphasised that the Vatican does not permit blessings for same-sex couples.

However the priests blessing same-sex couples on this occasion marked the latest display of a progressive movement within Germany's largest diocese, with approximately 1.8 million members.

Several hundred people gathered for the outdoor blessing service, showing their support for both same-sex and heterosexual couples.

Waving rainbow flags and singing the iconic Beatles hit "All You Need Is Love," approximately 30 couples received blessings.

Light years behind social reality

Germany's LGBTQ+ commissioner, Sven Lehmann, commended the event as a symbol of the ongoing demand for recognition and acceptance of same-sex couples within the Roman Catholic Church.

"It is mainly thanks to the church's grassroots that the church is opening up more and more," Lehmann said. "Archbishop Woelki and the Vatican, on the other hand, are light years behind social reality."

The Cologne archdiocese has been experiencing a crisis of confidence for some time, with many Catholic believers protesting against Archbishop Woelki.

Allegations of covering up clergy sexual abuse reports have driven many to leave the church.

The crisis erupted in 2020 when Woelki, citing legal concerns, withheld a report he had commissioned regarding how local church officials responded to accusations of sexual abuse by priests.

A subsequent report in March 2021 uncovered 75 cases of high-ranking officials neglecting their duties.

This event in Cologne is just one instance of the ongoing tension between progressive German Catholics and the Vatican.

The German Catholic Church initiated a reform process in response to clergy sexual abuse scandals. Still, the Vatican has sought to restrain this reform, particularly concerning issues related to the LGBTQ+ community, women and sexual morals.

While believers celebrated the blessings of same-sex couples, a group of about a dozen Catholics nearby demonstrated against the outdoor service, holding a banner that read, "Let's stay Catholic."

Sources

US News & World Report

CathNews New Zealand

The search operation involved approximately 30 police officers and four state prosecutors.

According to KNA news agency, the cardinal's lawyer, Bjoern Gercke, expressed concern over the apparent leak of information and the timing of the search's disclosure to the media.

Gercke announced his intention to file a criminal complaint against unidentified individuals for breaching confidentiality.

Gercke also criticised certain media outlets, pointing out that journalists had gathered at the archbishop's door half an hour before the investigators arrived.

"We would have voluntarily provided everything the prosecution needed," the lawyer emphasised, rendering the raid unnecessary.

The motive behind the searches was an ongoing investigation into Cardinal Woelki, who stands accused of providing false testimony under oath in court.

The prosecutor's office confirmed that properties in six locations were searched, commencing at 8am local time.

Among the sites were the offices of the vicar general, the diocesan tribunal, the archbishop's residence and the offices of the archdiocese's IT email service provider.

"The measures are directed toward the investigation into a merely initial suspicion and in this respect toward the establishment of both incriminating and exonerating circumstances," the state prosecutor's office said.

Woelki denies foreknowledge of allegations

To avoid misinterpretation, the office clarified, "it is also explicitly pointed out that the accused is in no way charged with actively or even passively covering up or even participating in acts of abuse," KNA reported.

Cardinal Woelki has been battling media reports suggesting that he had prior knowledge of allegations against a priest before reassigning him.

In response, the Archdiocese of Cologne stated on June 27 that examining business documents and emails would determine whether the accusation of a testimony-related offence against the cardinal could be substantiated or refuted.

The investigation aims to ascertain when Cardinal Woelki became aware of incriminating documents involving two priests engaged in sexual relations with minors.

Regarding the allegations against Winfried Pilz, the former leader of the Cologne carolers, Cardinal Woelki firmly denies any foreknowledge. Similarly, he denies having prior knowledge of the other priest's case, as the individual had been transferred to another diocese upon retiring in 2012.

The Archdiocese of Cologne cautioned that it would likely take some time before the investigation yielded conclusive results. Accordingly, they urged the public to refrain from making premature judgments based on an ongoing investigation.

Sources

America Magazine

DW

CathNews New Zealand

The probe is in connection with media coverage of sexual abuse scandals within the Catholic Church.

The Cologne prosecutors confirmed that around 30 police officers searched six locations, including Woelki's residence and an IT centre responsible for handling Church emails.

In a statement, the prosecutors clarified that the searches proceeded smoothly and encountered significant cooperation from the sites involved.

The prosecutors also emphasised that the accusations against Woelki do not suggest any active or passive involvement in covering up or participating in acts of abuse.

"In terms of content, the main issue in each case is whether Cardinal Woelki had any knowledge at all and, if so, at what specific point in time, of allegations of abuse levelled against two clerics," Cologne Prosecutor Ulf Willuhn told reporters.

Cardinal Woelki, aged 66, has faced intense criticism for his handling of widespread child molestation cases involving clergy members, including allegations that he assisted in concealing abuse committed by two priests in Duesseldorf, one of whom has since passed away.

The Cologne prosecutor's office initiated the investigation into Woelki following a criminal complaint filed by a layperson last month.

The suspicion of perjury stems from Woelki's testimony during a media rights hearing against Bild newspaper in late March. In his testimony, Woelki claimed never to have read two documents about a priest accused of abuse and denied being aware of their contents.

However, it is alleged that he referenced the information contained in those documents, which included details of sexual misconduct by the priest against young individuals, in a letter sent to the Vatican in 2018.

Vatican visitation ordered by Pope

Under German law, perjury carries a maximum prison sentence of 15 years, with a minimum penalty of one year behind bars.

The German criminal justice system has recently taken a proactive stance in prosecuting offences related to sexual abuse scandals that have plagued the Roman Catholic Church over the past few decades.

In a potentially groundbreaking case, a German court earlier this month ordered the Cologne archdiocese to pay €300,000 ($328,000) in damages to a victim of repeated sexual abuse by a priest.

Previously, the Church in Germany had made "voluntary" payments totalling approximately €40 million to victims.

A study commissioned by the German Bishops' Conference in 2018 revealed that between 1946 and 2014, 1,670 clergymen had committed some form of sexual assault against 3,677 minors.

Authorities believe that the actual number of victims may be significantly higher.

In response to a damning report on child sex abuse, including an examination of potential mistakes made by Woelki, Pope Francis ordered an apostolic visitation of the Cologne archdiocese in 2021.

The visitation aims to investigate the handling of abuse cases within the diocese.

Following the raids, Thomas Schueller, an expert in canon law at the University of Muenster, told the newspaper Rheinische Post that "it is now up to Woelki to decide for himself whether to pull the ripcord.

"However, his behaviour so far shows that he is clinging to his bishop's chair and puts his personal well-being above that of the Archdiocese of Cologne," Schueller said.

Sources

UCA News

National Catholic Reporter

CathNews New Zealand

The four bishops are Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne and three bishops from Bavaria: Gregor Maria Hanke, OSB, of Eichstätt; Stefan Oster of Passau; and Rudolf Voderholzer of Regensburg.

The German Bishops' Conference issued a statement on June 20: "For a large majority of the diocesan bishops, it is important that the 15 decisions of the synodal assembly be implemented as soon as possible."

However, the statement continued that since a unanimous decision of the bishops is needed to provide financial and human resources, "and four bishops have declared that they will not agree to further financing of the Synodal Way," it is now necessary to find other ways of financing, according to a report by CNA Deutsch.

Read More

The German Catholic news agency KNA reported Stephan Rixen has stepped down as head of the Independent Commission for the Investigation of Abuse in the Archdiocese of Cologne and has withdrawn from the body.

Mr Rixen told KNA on 5 December that his initial doubts about the independence and effectiveness of the committee had been confirmed.

The state government of North Rhine-Westphalia had appointed Rixen, a constitutional lawyer, to the committee made up of representatives of the diocese, scholars and people with practical expertise, as well as victims of abuse.

Rixen recalled a discussion the commission had with Woelki, the cardinal's office manager and the intervention officer of the archdiocese. The conversation about abuse allegations against Fr Winfried Pilz, a prominent priest, had left him with a "massive sense of unease," the lawyer said.

Rixen said he did not want to have to constantly ask himself whether someone was really telling him the truth. "I lack the confidence that a reappraisal that also affects Cardinal Woelki himself is really desired," he said.

Woelki is accused of not having initially informed the diocese about the abuse allegations against Pilz, who worked with a children's mission society.

KNA reported Rixen complained that a climate had arisen in which new "misunderstandings" may be intentionally arising "that always have the same result: Cardinal Woelki has made no mistakes".

Rixen said he had the impression that the majority of members of the Cologne commission did not want to come into conflict with the leadership of the archdiocese.

After accusations of the mishandling of priests accused of sex abuse, Woelki took a sabbatical from October 2021 to March 2022. He has submitted a letter of resignation to Pope Francis, who has not yet made a decision.

In a May meeting with editors of 10 Jesuit magazines in Europe, Francis said he was waiting to see how the situation in Cologne evolves.

"What is happening is that there are a lot of pressure groups, and under pressure, it is not possible to discern," Francis said. "To be able to discern, I am waiting until there is no pressure. The fact that there are different points of view is fine. The problem is when there is pressure. That does not help."

Sources

National Catholic Reporter

CathNews New Zealand

The cardinal wants to remain archbishop, but is placing his fate in the hands of the pope, Woelki told a closed diocesan pastoral council meeting in the city of Dusseldorf.

Woelki's references to the pope caused some consternation among the 60 attendees on Friday and Saturday.

He described Pope Francis as "old" and "out of touch with reality," several members told dpa.

An archdiocese spokesperson said that while Woelki had used the phrase "old man" to describe the pope, who is 85, this was in no way meant to be disrespectful.

One participant said of Woelki, "We experienced an honest, authentic bishop."

Read More

Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, the archbishop of Cologne, said that he had offered his resignation to the pontiff after returning from a month-long "spiritual timeout" last week.

The conservative Woelki has become a deeply divisive figure in the German church after triggering a public furore over his handling of reports on how church officials in his archdiocese dealt with abuse cases.

In September, the Vatican said that Francis had decided to give him the timeout after he made what it termed "major errors" of communication.

Read More

Woelki has been facing strong criticism for several months for his responses to allegations of child abuse in the Church.

He chose to take a five-month break from his duties last September after the Vatican report accused him of "major mistakes" in his handling of reports of sexual abuse at the hands of priests.

The Pope will make a decision about Woelki's resignation "in due course".

In the meantime, Woelki is expected to remain in his post.

The reports leading to Woelki's offers of resignation were both commissioned by him.

In 2019, the Cologne archdiocese commissioned the law firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl to examine relevant personnel files from 1975 onward.

The aim was to determine "which personal, systemic or structural deficits were responsible in the past for incidents of sexual abuse being covered up or not being punished consistently".

Woelki cited legal reasons for not releasing the information after archdiocesan lawyers raised concerns about "methodological deficiencies" in the study.

He then commissioned criminal law expert Professor Björn Gercke to write a new report.

The 800-page Gercke report examined 236 files in detail with the aim of identifying failures and violations of the law, as well as those responsible for them.

It found hundreds of cases of suspected sexual abuse in the archdiocese between 1975 and 2018. Most victims were under 14 years old.

In a Lenten pastoral letter published on Wednesday, Woelki said "Certainly, I realise that the situation has not become any easier since October last year. A time-out in itself does not solve any problems".

He added that any reconciliation could "only be contemplated, attempted and concretely undertaken in cooperation", not by taking time out from each other.

Source

• CNA
• DW
• Image: DW

Francis has also granted Woelki several months to reflect on the events that led him to offer the pontiff his resignation.

The reaction of German conference president, Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg, to the news was cautious.

"I accept the Holy Father's decision and hope that the process of reconciliation in the Cologne archdiocese will now begin. I cannot judge whether this can lead to a fundamentally changed situation," Bätzing declared in Bonn.

Woelki was upbeat following the announcement.

"I had a long talk with the Holy Father, and he made it quite clear how much he counted on me. He particularly highlighted the decisiveness and determination with which we in Cologne had tried to clear up the clerical sexual abuse in our archdiocese," Woelki told journalists on his return from a week in Rome.

Woelki admitted that he had made mistakes - "especially as far as communication is concerned" - and apologised profoundly to the victims once again.

He was deeply grateful to Pope Francis for granting him his wish to take several months off from mid-October.

"I will be back in office in the spring, and we can then work together full force for the future of our Church in Cologne," he underlined.

The reaction to the Pope's decision in the wider Church was hostile and has left many German Catholics bewildered.

Thomas Sternberg, the president of the Central Committee of (lay) Catholics (ZdK) said that he could not understand the Vatican decision.

"A period of leave just isn't enough and won't solve the crisis as it won't regain the loss of trust", Sternberg emphasised.

The Pope's decision to leave Woelki in office was a "declaration of moral bankruptcy", according to Thomas Schüller, one of Germany's top theologians.

Francis kept insisting that there would be zero tolerance for the perpetrators and those who hushed up clerical sexual abuse. But, when things got serious, "the powers that be get soft and the bishops remain in office and get time-out, which is a slap in the face for the victims".

Conference vice-president Bishop Franz-Josef Bode said the increase in the number of Catholics leaving the Church in Germany is "exceedingly worrying".

Committed Catholics "in the best age group" were leaving and Bishop Bode feared that this would have a "suction effect" and they would take others with them.

"No one wants to be on a sinking ship", he pointed out. The many talks he had held with victims of clerical sexual abuse in recent years had at times almost made him lose his faith, he admitted.

Sources

• The Tablet
• Catholic News Agency
• Vatican News

The number of Catholics leaving the church, centred on Cologne, has reached a record 1,000 a month. But Protestants are also voting with their feet.

The Cologne archdiocese's "sluggish" efforts to clear up the abuse scandal were driving Protestants out of the Church, President Manfred Rekowski of the Protestant Church in the Rhineland told the Evangelical Press Service (epd).

"There is such a thing as a joint ecumenical liability. It is stressful and I hope things will be cleared up soon", Rekowski said.

"Anything that gives the impression of being obscure or that the Church has only little interest in clearing up abuse is fatal."

The Cologne crisis was triggered by the refusal of Cardinal Woelki to publish the report he commissioned on how priestly sexual abuse had been handled in the archdiocese.

In December, Woekli asked Pope Francis to examine the accusations made against him. He has pledged to issue a new report on the investigation's findings in March. The cardinal said the report will "name those responsible".

He is also being faulted for not investigating serious allegations against a Düsseldorf priest alleged to have abused a boy of kindergarten age in the late 1970s. After he was appointed Archbishop of Cologne in 2014, he decided not to notify Rome. Woekli reasoned the priest, who has since died, was suffering from advanced dementia and the scandal would benefit nobody.

Meanwhile, Germany's secular panel on sexualized violence against children says Cologne's Catholic archdiocese has "severely damaged" moves to own up to its abusive past.

Cologne's archbishopric "severely damaged" the process of owning up to decades of sexualized violence against children in its ranks. This is demanded by victims and lay Catholics, a top secular German panel found on Monday.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse — a commission mandated by parliament since 2016 to probe cases across German society — decried the diocese's own internal review, saying this must be done instead by outsiders.

Sources

• The Tablet
• DW

The policy agreed to by over three quarters of the bishops will allow the non-Catholic spouses of Catholics to receive Communion in certain circumstances.

The policy says one of the most important conditions enabling spouses to receive Communion is that they "share the Catholic faith" on the Eucharist.

Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki and six other bishops disagree with the new policy.

They wrote to the Vatican asking for clarification. They said they don't think the issue is within the competence of a local bishops' conference. They think it is a universal Church matter.

Last week six of the bishops and their secretary, a Jesuit priest, went to Rome to ask Pope Francis to rule on the matter.

They met with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), the Congregation for Bishops and with the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity.

Archbishop Luis Ladaria, the CDF prefect, then reported to Pope Francis giving him a summary of the conversations.

He returned to the delegation saying Francis wished them to continue discussion of the issue among themselves. He explained Francis is hoping for "a possibly unanimous arrangement."

Francis has sought to decentralise church decision-making in favor of local solutions. He emphasises conscience and case-by-case solutions to pastoral problems.

Source

• Crux Now
• Catholic Culture
• The Sacramento Bee
• La Croix
• Image: Zenit