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“Woelki harms the church as a whole”: How Berlin Catholics rate the allegations against their ex-bishop – Berlin

During the Christmas mass in Cologne Cathedral last Friday, the archbishop asked for “forgiveness”. Rainer Maria Woelki said he was “sincerely sorry that those affected and believers were also exposed to criticism of the archdiocese and his person” in connection with the handling of the report on dealing with sexualised violence. The cardinal’s refusal to publish the independent report of a Munich chancellery puts theologians in increasing distress.

According to research by the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger” (Cologne City Gazette), the archbishop of Germany’s richest diocese in 2015 is said to have covered a priest who allegedly abused a child in the 1970s. The archbishopric did not investigate the allegations against the priest, who had since died, and the mandatory report to Rome was not made. There are also calls for resignation against the theologian.

Many Berlin Catholics are also annoyed by the behavior of the Cologne cardinal. Because Woelki has a close connection to the Spree: From 2011 to 2014 he was Catholic Archbishop of Berlin. When he came to Berlin to succeed the late Cardinal Sterzinsky, many Catholic Christians in Berlin, Brandenburg and Western Pomerania initially reacted in astonishment. A theologian with a PhD from the University of Opus Dei in Rome? Can that go well in Berlin?

But Woelki became more popular on the Spree than many of his predecessors ever were. “Here in Berlin he had shown himself to be a learner, for example in terms of ecumenism and dialogue with the Jewish community,” says the Vice President of the Central Committee of German Catholics, Wolfgang Klose. The bank manager lives in Neukölln, where he is chairman of the parish council of St. Dominicus in Gropiusstadt.

He remembers that Woelki appointed women to leadership positions in the archdiocese, such as Berlin’s first Caritas director Ulrike Kostka. And when Woelki was appointed cardinal in 2012, the then governing mayor Klaus Wowereit (SPD) even traveled with him to the Vatican for the cardinal’s uprising.

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“He has wrapped some people around his fingers with his charm,” says lawyer Christoph Lehmann, who organized the Berlin referendum “Pro Reli”. “He left the impression that he was beginning to be interested in ecumenism.”

Didn’t he want to spoil his career move to Cologne?

Today, many Berlin Catholics see their former archbishop with different eyes. “I now believe that he did not show a lot of positions that he had internalized with us, but was very waiting,” says Klose. “I suspect that Berlin was only an intermediate stage for him before the Archdiocese of Cologne and that he did not want to spoil the option.”

Karlies Abmeier, chairwoman of the diocesan council in the Archdiocese of Berlin, sees it similarly. “It makes a difference whether you are at home or in a foreign country, where everyone reacts wait and see,” says Abmeier. “In Cologne Woelki is at home among his own kind.”

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Woelki is and has never been who he was or was believed to be, says Zehlendorf-based journalist Volker Resing, editor-in-chief of the Catholic “Herder-Korrespondenz”. “In contrast to many of his confreres, he is a complex and multi-layered, perhaps also complicated personality – and that is precisely why he fitted so well in Berlin.” It was not easy to define: the media and politics would have liked that. “In the communities he was not so popular everywhere, with his sometimes mischievous, sometimes aloof manner.”

“If I make mistakes, I have to answer for them”

In contrast, Resing calls Woelki’s activities in Cologne “less glamorous”. Klose, however, becomes even clearer: “Woelki is damaging the church as a whole,” says the ZdK vice-president. “Like everyone in the church who does not position themselves clearly or confess: If I make mistakes, I have to answer for them.”

Lehmann openly confesses that he no longer understands the Archbishop of Cologne. “The way in which the issue of sexual abuse is dealt with there appalles Catholics not only in Cologne, but throughout Germany,” says Lehmann. “I don’t understand that we are all always held jointly responsible for what happens there.”

He thinks it is good that the Munich Archbishop Reinhard Cardinal Marx is donating money from his private assets to a foundation for the benefit of victims of abuse. “Such a gesture could come from other bishops too.”

The chairwoman of the diocesan council, Karlies Abmeier, is happy that Woelki has found a good successor in Berlin. “We have Heiner Koch, he’s different, he’s communicative,” says Abmeier. “And I very much hope that he has nothing to do with the difficult subject in Cologne.” Because Heiner Koch was once auxiliary bishop in Cologne.

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