Comes the liberation blow?

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Cardinal Woelki studies the expert opinion © N.N. (DR)

Cardinal Woelki announces further consequences of an abuse report for his archdiocese. Woelki has used the past few days to read the report, draw conclusions and hold discussions.

Woelki had learned the results of the investigation for the first time with the press last Thursday. This was stated by the archdiocese. He plans to present the next steps in a press conference this Tuesday with Vicar General Markus Hofmann. The Archdiocese of Cologne and our site broadcast live from 10.00 a.m.

Relieved of duties and given leave of absence

The report, which the archdiocese commissioned from the law firm Gercke Wollschlager, shows how diocesan officials dealt with cases of sexualized violence by priests. The investigation records a total of 75 breaches of duty by eight officials, including archbishops, vicars general and personnel directors, in 24 of 236 files evaluated. For example, they did not follow up on suspicions or sanction punishable behavior.

Immediately after the presentation of the investigation, Woelki had Auxiliary Bishop Dominikus Schwaderlapp (53) and the Cologne Offizial Gunter Assenmacher (69) temporarily relieved of their duties. A day later, he also suspended auxiliary bishop Ansgar Puff (65). Hamburg Archbishop Stefan Hebe (54), who used to be head of personnel and vicar general in Cologne, resigns from his office. He and Schwaderlapp have offered their resignations to the pope. Woelki himself was not proven to have committed any misconduct.

Supervision of offender conditions

The experts attest the archdiocese a disastrous file situation and the officials a large legal ignorance. The protection of the church as an institution had been the main priority. The investigation also contains suggestions for improvement: The archdiocese should, among other things, professionalize record keeping, provide leadership training and create an office to monitor offender restraints, it said.

Woelki had commissioned the expert opinion only in October of last year. It concerns the second elaboration for the archbishopric – a first appraisal of a Munich Kanzlei was not published at first as intended, because the cardinal considers it unsatisfactory. Critics therefore accused him of lacking the will to enlighten. Starting on Thursday, those affected, journalists and other interested parties will be able to gain an insight into this first elaboration.

Woelki rules out resignation

Meanwhile, the archbishop ruled out making his office available. "What would be gained by a resignation? That would be the easier way," he told Die Zeit (Monday). "By remaining in office, I take responsibility for what I started in Cologne: the relentless clarification."

The pope chose tiny Malta to send a clear message on the abuse ie. Benedict XVI met unexpectedly and under strict secrecy. on Sunday in Rabat with eight men who had suffered sexual abuse as minors at the hands of Catholic clerics.

It was only a meeting of 20 minutes in the chapel of the nunciature, framed by moments of prayer. But especially for some foreign observers, it was the real news of the 14. Pope's trip abroad. Just a few hours earlier, late Saturday evening, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi had not wanted – or been able – to confirm the conversation. "Such meetings take place when they take place," said the Jesuit. He only referred to similar events in the USA and at the World Youth Day in Sydney in 2008. At the time, a few weeks apart, the pope had wanted to send a signal that he was not indifferent to the fate of the abused. Ultimately surprise co There, too, the meetings took place in an atmosphere of tense expectation, but ultimately as a surprise coup. The pope, the Vatican explained, was keen to exercise discretion so as not to create media prere – also with regard to the victims. Benedict XVI. also stressed the importance of holding the talks in a spiritual framework. It should become clear that it is about a failure that must also be worked through in the categories of religious guilt and forgiveness. Moreover – and Lombardi stressed this once again to journalists on Sunday – the church leadership does not associate any legal consequences with the meetings. No admission of guilt, no anticipation of state and canonical judgments. The investigations in the dioceses in question would have to take their own course. Yet the Vatican continues to rely explicitly on the competence of local church leaders – even if Benedict XVI. which she had recently strongly challenged in the case of the Irish church. Things are different in Malta. One indicator of this is that Archbishop Paul Cremona of Malta even has the confidence of Maltese homosexual activist Patrick Attard. The latter, after all, had started a Facebook group "No to Pope Benedict in Malta". "I wish we had a pope like our archbishop," Attard told the local press – polemically, but with high praise for Cremona, whom he describes as humble, compassionate and wise.

Preservation of faith and moral values As host, Cremona presented to its head, without conflict and loyally, the themes that formed the real message of the Pope's trip to Malta: Preservation of faith and moral values, especially when it comes to the protection of life and marriage. And finally, the reminder of the great tradition of hospitality, which, in view of the landing of the Apostle Paul before 1.950 was a leitmotif of the weekend visit from Rome. Benedict XVI. The Pope's trip abroad was consistently on this theme, in his speeches to President George Abela, to missionaries at St. Paul's Rabat, in the mass at the large representation square at the gates of the capital, Valletta. Accentuated he spoke of it also again at a meeting with well 12.000 young people in the port of Valletta late Sunday afternoon.

Appeal to young Christians "You should be proud that your country both protects the unborn and promotes stable family life by rejecting abortion and divorce," exclaimed Benedict XVI. to the young faithful. In Europe, he warned, gospel values "are once again at odds with the prevailing culture, as was the case in the time of St. Paul." The Pope knows that Catholic Malta is a strong partner for the Vatican, especially in the EU. His appeal to the young Christians was correspondingly energetic: "Do not be afraid!" – Paul's shout to his fellow passengers as they were shipwrecked off Malta. The faithful will need this fearlessness, in the storms outside and inside the church.

Nowadays one does without the cell phone, alcohol or chocolate in the Lent time. In former times it was different. Customs expert Manfred Becker-Huberti looks back into the past and explains how people used to fast in the past.

Interviewer: The tradition of fasting existed before Jesus?

Professor Dr. Manfred Becker-Huberti (theologian and expert on customs): Yes, you can see it in Jesus himself. He quotes in some place that one should not look as gloomy as the Pharisees who fast and make it out to be so by looking especially depressed.

So fasting should be done with joy and in silence.

Interviewer: Minus Sunday, we fast for 40 days, just as Jesus is said to have fasted in the desert after his baptism. Why the number 40?

Becker-Huberti: The number 40 is a symbolic number indicating vastness and greatness. I remember that the Jews wandered in the desert for 40 years. We encounter the number 40 continuously in the Old and New Testaments. For example, it rained 40 days when the ark was built. There are 40 chapters in the second book of Moses. According to Leviticus, if a woman gives birth to a boy, she is considered unclean for 40 days, and so on.

The number 40 in our context comes up with Jesus' fasting before his public ministry. Fasting for 40 days. This 40 is symbolism for this Lenten season. And not only for the Easter fast, but originally also for the Christmas fasting period. Because Advent was originally also once a 40-day period of fasting.

Interviewer: Today there are car fasts, cell phone fasts and internet fasts. What did people fast in earlier times?

Becker-Huberti: The most important thing in fasting was abstinence from food and drink. Then of course public merrymaking such as dancing or concerts, which were omitted. There were also times when abstinence from sexual intercourse played an essential role, of course also for married couples, who then restrained themselves – at least, however, during Holy Week.

Interviewer: What was with alcohol and chocolate? Also a fasting idea of modern times?

Becker-Huberti: This is an idea of modern times. You have to imagine that in ancient times – even in the Middle Ages and partly into the18. In the sixteenth century – there was nothing but thin beer to drink. Normal water did not work, because one did not know that one had to boil it. It was dangerous to health.

Juices did not go, because one did not have enough juices, and/or could not make them durable. So you could only drink thin beer or dilute wine. Total abstinence from alcohol did not work.

There was rather the opposite: strong beer was produced, for example in monasteries. If you ate less, you had to get the calories you needed to maintain your job from the stronger brewed beer.

Interviewer: It is up to each person to decide whether or not to take stimulants during Lent. No one is paying attention from the outside. How it used to be? There will not have been a fasting police force, will there??

Becker-Huberti: A fasting police certainly not. But there was some kind of social control. In a village, of course, everyone knew from the neighbor how he was doing with these things – especially since they also dealt with each other, worked or looked into each other's kitchens.

Accordingly, it was quite regimented. Incidentally, the confessor saw to that. The asked namely also whether someone kept to the fasting rules or not and admonished accordingly.

The interview was conducted by Tobias Fricke.

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