Germany Raids Cologne Archdiocese

Thirty policemen raided six locations in Cologne Archdiocese, Germany, on Tuesday morning, the public prosecutor's office confirmed.

The background is a "perjury" investigation against Cardinal Woelki. The police searched his house, the ordinariate, and the premises where the e-mail traffic is managed. The archdiocese cooperated.

Background: In March, Woelki told a court that he didn't know about a priest's homosex behaviour and an affair with a 16-year-old male prostitute when he promoted him in 2017, adding that he was not informed about the priest's behaviour “until today”.

Woelki disagreed with two alleged witnesses who said that they had told him about it.

Key evidence: Woelki signed a letter to the CDF in 2018 referring to a conversation about the priest. But the letter contains no corroborating details. Woelki says he signed the letter without reading it.

Picture: Raimond Spekking / CC BY-SA 4.0 (via Wikimedia Commons), #newsXpclobxwya