Cologne Abuse Scandal: Dutch and Swedish Bishops Open Papal Inquiry | Abroad

The “apostolic visitors,” as scholars are officially called, were the first to speak with some victims of abuse. Among them Patrick Bauer (51), who was first sexually abused at the age of ten by a priest from Bad Godesberg, now part of Bonn. The religious assaulted him for years and Bauer still suffers the consequences. He suffers from depression and trouble sleeping. “I can’t breathe at night because I think my mouth is full,” he told state broadcaster ZDF in March this year.

Bauer reacted with surprise today after the conversation with the two bishops behind closed doors. “I thought it was a very open and engaged conversation and asked them why they wanted to talk to us first. The answer was: because you emailed us and the victims are the most important in this process. I find that very commendable, ” said the 50-year-old in front of the camera of the Daily News, news from the public broadcaster ARD.

He is one of five former members of the Advisory Council for Victims of the Diocese of Cologne, the largest in Germany. Each of them spoke on Tuesday on the actions of Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki van Keulen. He is under fire for his actions in cases of abuse.

For example, he did not make public a first investigative report conducted by a criminal defense lawyer due to “weak investigative methods” and subsequently ordered a second investigation by another legal expert. criminal. The report, released in March, showed that more than 300 children had been sexually assaulted in the diocese in recent decades by more than 200 potential suspects. The report exonerated the cardinal but accused a dozen clerics of errors in handling cases of abuse.

The archbishop and cardinal is again criticized for his actions against two of the clergy accused in the report. Woelki appointed one of them as deputy dean of the parish of Sainte-Marguerite in Düsseldorf in 2017 despite allegations of sexual assault. The other priest, who has since died and works in the same parish, did not conduct a preliminary ecclesiastical investigation into allegations of serious sexual abuse when he took office in 2015. The cardinal also failed to report this to Rome, later justifying the turn of events by pointing out the “advanced dementia” of the former priest which prevented him from being questioned.

Victims of abuse therefore do not feel taken seriously by Woelki. Bauer: ,, I don’t care who sits in the Archbishop of Cologne’s chair. What I want is real trust, real transparency and real dialogue.

The deans of 14 of the 15 branches of the towns and districts of the archdiocese wrote to Cardinal Woelki at the end of May asking him to draw “personal consequences” from the scandal of abuse and the allegations made against him. According to department heads, the crisis of confidence in the archdiocese, with hundreds of Catholics unsubscribing, has reached a climax and cannot continue like this.

Bishop Hans van den Hende of Rotterdam and his confrere Anders Arborelius of Stockholm are to “form a full picture on the spot of the complex pastoral situation in the Archdiocese of Cologne,” said a statement read at the end of May. statement by the Vatican diplomatic mission in Berlin.

Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki welcomes the investigation. “I have already informed the Holy Father in detail of the situation in our archdiocese in February and I applaud him for wanting to take advantage of the apostolic visit to form his own image of the independent investigation and its consequences”, he said after the announcement of the arrival of the two “visitors”.

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