Cologne City Gazette
Cologne (ots)
Cardinal Rainer Woelki, Archbishop of Cologne, is suspected of making false statements under oath. As the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger” (Wednesday edition) reports, a corresponding criminal complaint was filed with the Cologne public prosecutor’s office on Monday (April 24). She refers to Woelki’s interrogation by the Cologne Regional Court on March 28 in a legal dispute with the “Bild” newspaper (Az 28 O 293/21). It deals with the question of what knowledge the cardinal had about allegations of abuse against a priest of the archdiocese, whom he promoted to a senior position in 2017. Woelki defends himself against the assertion by the “Bild” newspaper that he knew relevant documents about the priest or their contents before his promotion. The district court has announced its verdict for this Wednesday.
In court, Woelki stated, among other things, that he had no knowledge of specific allegations made by a 35-year-old man against the priest in 2010. Literally, Woelki explained: “To date, no one has reported anything to me about the allegations made by Mr. A. (name changed).” At the end of his interrogation, which lasted more than an hour and a half, the press chamber of the district court, chaired by Judge Dirk Esser da Silva, ordered Woelki to swear an oath to his extensive statement. False testimony under oath in court is a crime punishable by imprisonment for up to fifteen years, in less serious cases up to five years.
The criminal complaint, which is available to the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger”, draws the public prosecutor’s attention to a confidential letter from Woelki to the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome, Cardinal Luis Ladaria, from November 2018. In it, the cardinal describes in detail, among other things, case A., the corresponding report by the person concerned about a sexual relationship with the later promoted priest and how the archdiocese dealt with it. Upon request, the Archdiocese asserted that Woelki had signed the letter. But he “can’t remember” reading it. He therefore assumes “that he has not read the letter and has relied on the expert work of the competent authority with regard to the elaboration”. The letter to Rome with the appropriate attachments was “created by the official (ecclesiastical court) “in terms of content alone and independently on their own responsibility”. In addition, the Archdiocese emphasized that the process was irrelevant for the press law procedure. This is all about Woelki’s knowledge at the time of promotion in 2017. The public prosecutor’s office said on request that the ad was not yet available. The registration in the authority’s system can sometimes take one to two days.
https://www.ksta.de/koeln/strafanzeige-gegen-woelki-verdacht-einer-falschaussage-unter-eid-558123
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Original content from: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, transmitted by news aktuell
