Call for admission of guilt

Call for admission of guilt

Poster with a portrait of Our Lady and the inscription "Maria 2.0" © Harald Oppitz (KNA)

New action: The Maria 2 initiative.0 plans to demonstrate on Friday with a "confession mobile" in front of Cologne Cathedral and the Archbishop's House for the publication of the abuse study commissioned by Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki.

Leaders of the archdiocese could confess their guilt in dealing with abuse cases to "confessors" on Friday at Roncalliplatz next to the cathedral and on Saturday and Sunday in front of Woelki's office and residence on Kardinal-Frings-Strasse, Maria 2 stated.0 on Thursday in Cologne.

New investigation commissioned

The Archdiocese of Cologne had announced last Friday that it would not publish the expert opinion commissioned by Woelki at the end of 2018 from the Munich law firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl (WSW) on possible misconduct by diocesan officials in dealing with abuse cases because of methodological flaws. Instead, the Cologne criminal law expert Bjorn Gercke was commissioned with a new investigation. Maria 2.0 accuses Woelki of trying to protect perpetrators and cover-ups of sexualized violence in the archdiocese by not publishing the initial report.

New expertise until March 2021

Gercke wants to see by 18 at the latest. March 2021 to present a new expertise. "The expert report will be uncomfortable for the archdiocese," he said in response to objections that the archbishop wanted to withhold findings. The cardinal stressed with regard to the new awarded study, "I do not expect to be spared – on the contrary."

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.