This is what it is all about

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Historical documents on the shelf of a diocesan archive © Julia Steinbrecht (KNA)

Archdiocese of Cologne presents legal opinion Thursday on diocese's handling of sexualized violence by church staff. Archbishop Rainer Maria Cardinal Woelki will receive the report from the authors.

The investigation into cases from 1975 to 2018 focuses on how diocesan officials dealt with sexual abuse of children or vulnerable adults by priests and church personnel. According to the information, the expert opinion is based on personnel files, documents and conversations with officials.

The expert's report, which will be handed out on Thursday to Woelki as well as to the advisory board of those affected and made available to the interested public, should lead to personnel consequences depending on the results. First consultation results and possible consequences from the investigation want to Archbishop Woelki in the coming week, on 23. March, communicate. From 25. March is in addition in the archiepiscopal conference house a further, before with another Kanzlei in order-placed and so far unpublished appraisal for interested ones to lie out. For this a pre-registration is necessary. The Archdiocese of Cologne and our site will broadcast the press conference on Thursday at 10.00 o'clock live.

Postponed, cancelled, newly prepared

Those affected, the faithful and employees in the diocese, as well as the general public, had to wait around a year for the publication of an expert opinion on the Archbishopric of Cologne. The presentation of possible deficits or violations of church law and official duties in dealing with abuse cases, originally announced for March 2020, was first postponed and then canceled. The cooperation with the originally commissioned law firm was terminated, a new law firm was commissioned.

Concerns regarding the right of expression

The archbishop had justified his decision not to publish the expert opinion, which had initially been commissioned from the Munich law firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl, with evaluations by other lawyers and law firms. These had urged expression-legal doubts and referred among other things to possible complaints of functionaries mentioned by name. Qualitative and methodological deficiencies in the reappraisal were also criticized. The Munich law firm, which was and is also active for other dioceses in dealing with abuse, had repeatedly contradicted the criticism. Since the fall of 2020, the Cologne law firm Gercke and Wollschlager prepared a new independent expert opinion.

The archbishop's decision and also his handling of criticism from society, the priesthood and parishes caused criticism and opposition. In addition, the archdiocese had to deal with accusations of cover-up in addition to accusations of lack of transparency and procrastination.

Expert opinion already handed over to the public prosecutor's office

Meanwhile, criminal lawyer Bjorn Gercke has already handed over the legal opinion on the responsibility of bishops, vicars general and other executives in the abuse scandal in the Cologne archdiocese to the Cologne public prosecutor's office. He had forwarded the expert opinion before the publication announced for today, Thursday, said Gercke on Monday evening in the WDR local time from Cologne. Already during the investigation phase in the past months there had been a constant exchange with the prosecution authority.

The public prosecutor's office had already received an interim report some time ago. The previously unpublished expert opinion of the Munich criminal law firm, which the archdiocese had withdrawn from the mandate because of alleged methodological errors, is also available to the Cologne public prosecutor's office. Cologne Archbishop Rainer Maria Woelki will receive the expert opinion at the same time as the public, Gercke said on WDR.

"From the point of view of those affected, in my estimation, nothing has changed with today," says Oliver Vogt. The head of the Institute for Prevention and Reappraisal of Sexualized Violence criticizes the bishops on the abuse ie.

Interviewer: Do you know why it took so long for the bishops to agree on principles for payments to abuse victims?

Oliver Vogt (Director of the Institute for Prevention and Reappraisal of Sexualized Violence): The question of these so-called recognition services and the catch with it covers a very wide range of topics. This is a matter of principle. In the past, there were already clear recommendations from the German Bishops' Conference on how to proceed in these cases. But of course, through the template that came up last fall and that was created by this working group, a rather high standard has been set for the whole ies in this area. This had to be sorted and evaluated first. Now it seems that there is at least a commitment to these basic ways and directions.

Interviewer: These principles include, for example, a continued comprehensive offer of talks, information and accompaniment for those affected. But it is also about the material achievements. These are all voluntary payments, or?

Vogt: That's right, because there is no right to compensation or recognition benefits. Therefore one will remain further with the freiwilligen achievements. But with the paper – this is how I understand the result of the consultations – they say very clearly: "We will go this way and will continue to pay these benefits to those affected."

Interviewer: Individually determined one-time payments are to be made to the victims. And an independent body is to review the central determination of recognition figures. What does that look like then?

Vogt: This is one of the questions, which unfortunately has not been clarified in the course of the present Assembly. The paper and findings are very general and contain little specifics. That's why it's difficult to say what the next steps will be. This also includes the questions that, from my point of view at least, cannot be answered at present: How will this body be put together? Who decides who participates there? What will be the procedures? These are all things that are currently at least still unclear and which, according to the decision taken in the last few days, will only be specified in the fall.

Interviewer: So there is an agreement without concrete consequences?

Vogt: I ame that now again a working group, however composed, will deal with the questions that now need to be clarified. Why this has not happened in the interim between the first and the current interception, I can not say. This working group must now clarify the questions. It must clarify what the procedures will be like. It has to evaluate all this and then present it to the next plenary assembly so that a final decision can then be made.

Interviewer: What does this agreement by the bishops' conference mean for a victim of abuse? In what kind of a different position than the day before yesterday is one thereby?

Vogt: First of all, one is in no different position than the day before yesterday. And this is also what will once again weigh heavily on those affected with the statement and the results that have now been published, because there are precisely no concrete results. One does not know how one has the possibility to participate in the new procedure in the future. It is not clear whether a new application must be made again and how to deal with applications that have already been decided so far. That is, from the point of view of those affected, in my estimation, nothing has changed with today's events.

Interviewer: Victims' associations have long warned that a regulation must finally be made. So, in their eyes, the principles that have now been agreed upon are not sufficient?

Vogt: The principles are sufficient and describe a correct way. The procedure had to be developed and it has to come to other procedures and also to other payments. My criticism is that it is simply taking too long again and that these principles are good, but far too unspecific. In the end, they do not bring the clarity that is expected by all sides, so that the procedures can be handled promptly, well and in the interest of those affected.

Interviewer: So this procedure, this re-examination of the claims, can mean for the victims that they have to go through everything again?

Vogt: I hope not. I hope that a procedure will be agreed upon in which at least those persons who have already told their story and made their application in a German diocese or to a religious order will not have to go through the whole procedure again, including the description of the deed. In my view, this will be one of the essential points to be considered in a new procedure. Those affected should not again be put in the situation of being exposed to the risk of traumatization.

The interview was conducted by Uta Vorbrodt.

Historical documents on the shelf of a diocesan archive © Julia Steinbrecht (KNA)

Now also Osnabruck: But while other dioceses mostly rely only on purely historical, legal or psychological reappraisal of abuse, the study for the Osnabruck diocese chooses an interdisciplinary approach.

The German Bishops' Conference's abuse study, presented in 2018, has set things in motion: several Catholic dioceses in Germany have since commissioned their own independent investigations to take a closer look at sexual violence in their.

The dioceses took different approaches to the matter. After a long dispute, the archdiocese of Cologne presented an expert opinion in March, which also names those responsible. The Archdiocese of Berlin also commissioned lawyers, but did not name them. Historians are currently working on a study for the diocese of Munster.

Interdisciplinary approach

The diocese of Osnabruck has chosen a different, interdisciplinary approach – in which names are to be mentioned. The University of Osnabruck is preparing a historical-legal expert opinion for the North German diocese, the design of which was presented in more detail on Tuesday.

The goal of the three-year study is to examine the various perceptions of sexualized violence against the respective contemporary background, explained the historian Siegrid Westphal and the legal scholar Hans Schulte-Nolke as project leader. In addition, typical abuse patterns in the church environment and the handling of cases would be uncovered and evaluated. The diocese is providing 1.3 million euros for this purpose. The project is expected to start on 1. August.

According to Westphal, it is important for the five researchers involved not only to investigate possible breaches of duty by the diocese management in dealing with the perpetrators. Violations of state or ecclesiastical law by those responsible for dealing with the currently 50 known cases would only be examined in a first sub-project, the results of which would then be published after one year.

In addition, new cases should also be uncovered by studying files and interviewing those affected and eyewitnesses, Schulte-Nolke added. In addition, they said, they want to find out where incomplete and missing rules have kept those responsible from acting and where victims have been let down. "With this clarification, we want to contribute to the recognition of those affected."

Sift through documents in church parishes

It is also noteworthy that the scientists not only more than 2.The commission not only wants to comb through the thousands of personnel files in the diocesan archives, but also to examine documents in the affected parishes. In addition, those affected and other contemporary witnesses are also to be interviewed.

With the publication names of responsible persons would be called, as far as this is legally permissible, stressed Schulte Nolke. The University of Osnabruck alone decides on the time as well as the manner of publication, without the diocese having to agree to it.

The diocese guarantees the scientists unrestricted access to its files, ared Vicar General Ulrich Beckwermert. "Until the publication of the results, the diocese is not the subject, but the object of the procedure."

Beckwermert explains that the diocese is only now – a good two and a half years after the MHG study – commissioning a project of its own by the fact that the focus was initially deliberately placed on the protection of those affected and on the creation of a protection concept.

Cooperation with monitoring group

Here the diocese has been working for two years with a voluntary monitoring group, whose idea and initiative gave rise to the design of the study now presented.

In Osnabruck's neighboring bishoprics, too, studies are currently underway to come to terms with sexual violence. In the diocese of Hildesheim, an expert commission of lawyers and social scientists is investigating allegations of abuse against the former Hildesheim bishop Heinrich Maria Janssen (1907-1988).

In the archdiocese of Hamburg, a research group led by a psychiatrist is taking a close look at cases in the Neubrandenburg region. At the same time, the three northern dioceses are currently planning to set up a joint commission to deal with the matter, which will be staffed by independent experts and those affected and will continue to drive forward the process of coming to terms with the past.

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