Germany: Smear Campaign against Cologne Cardinal Fails
Cardinal Woelki is one of the better German bishops. Bild is the largest newspaper in Germany. It is known to be an unreliable propaganda rag.
In a case before Cologne's Higher Regional Court, all the signs are that Cardinal Woelki will prevail against his detractors.
At a hearing on Thursday, the court said it saw no prospect of success in Bild's appeal against a first-instance ruling by the Cologne Regional Court. A ruling has been set for 5 December.
The case concerns two online articles from July 2022 about the former president of the children's missionary organisation 'Die Sternsinger', Rev. Winfried Pilz (1940-2019).
At the end of June 2022, the Archdiocese of Cologne had published allegations of abuse of a male adult against Pilz, who had spent his retirement in the Diocese of Dresden-Meissen.
Under Woelki's predecessor, Cardinal Joachim Meisner, the archdiocese had failed to inform that diocese of the allegations against Pilz.
The cardinal rejected the newspaper's claim that he himself had dealt with the unreported incident when he was vicar general.
On the contrary, Cardinal Woelki didn't know that the information had not been passed on. During the trial, he swore an affidavit stating that he was not involved in the Pilz case until the fourth week of June 2002.
According to presiding judge Brigitte Richter, the Higher Regional Court agrees with the Regional Court that there is no factual basis for Bild's claim that Woelki had known about the case and failed to report it.
Accordingly, 'Bild's articles were defamatory and violated the Cardinal's right of personality.
In addition to this case, there were also 'Bild' articles about a priest promoted by the archbishop who had legal homosexual contact with a 16-year-old male prostitute in 2001.
According to a ruling by the Higher Regional Court, 'Bild' is no longer allowed to write that Woelki was aware of two incriminating documents concerning the priest at the time of his promotion in 2017.
Because of other reports about Woelki's dealings with the promoted priest, the Higher Regional Court has already banned four out of six false statements made by 'Bild' last year.
Picture: Rainer Maria Woelki © wikipedia CC BY-SA, #newsEgkfgemwdl