Cologne cardinal offers resignation for second time just after returning to work

Germany’s scandal-hit Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki has offered his resignation to Pope Francis – for the second time – on his return to work in Cologne after a five-month period of “prayer and reflection”.

The return of Woelki as Catholic archbishop of Cologne was marked by protests outside the city cathedral – even after the 65-year-old decided to stay away from traditional Ash Wednesday services.

In a pastoral letter marking his return, Cardinal Woelki said the pope would decide “in due course” about his resignation.

Woelki has become a focus of growing anger among German Catholics over clerical sexual abuse, its cover-up and institutional clericalism. Last year he came under sustained attack for suppressing a report into clerical abuse he had commissioned, and later publishing a second report, which, unlike the first, largely exonerated diocesan superiors for the actions of their abusing priests.

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In his letter on Wednesday he acknowledged “the omissions, the mistakes and the guilt in my life”, adding: “I am sorry that this is such a trying time for many in our church. And I know and it hurts me that I too am responsible for this situation.”

He asked Catholics in Cologne to “give me – no, give us – another chance” while Pope Francis decides his future.

Last year the pope ordered two investigators to Cologne and, afterwards, said Cardinal Woelki had contributed “considerably” to a “crisis of confidence” in the archdiocese.

Stronghold

Traditionally Cologne is a Catholic stronghold but, last year, some 14,000 Catholics in the city applied to leave the church, 4 per cent of the total. According to a representative survey for a Cologne newspaper, some 82 per cent said Pope Francis should release Woelki from his duties in the archdiocese.

Acknowledging that survey, Bishop Rolf Steinhäuser, who deputised for Woelki, admitted that “the rifts are even deeper and more unbridgeable than before” the cardinal left.

Woelki’s loyal inner circle of conservative Catholics see him as a target of a growing progressive, reformist movement in the German Catholic Church. But many diocesan priests in Cologne have spoken out openly against him, citing uproar in their parishes. One leading church official described the cardinal as “divorced from reality”. Matters are likely to come to a head at next week’s spring gathering of the German Bishops’ Conference.

Its head, Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg, took the unusual step of marking the start of Lent on Wednesday with a guest column in Cologne’s largest newspaper.

“If we let go,” he wrote, “disregard ourselves and pay attention to others and others, then we will find ourselves again.”

Some 300 members of reformist groups gathered outside Cologne Cathedral, chanting: “Woelki, go to Rome.”

“I have a bad feeling in my stomach, I don’t feel represented by him,” said Ursula Guss, of the Mario 2.0 reform group.

Canon lawyer Thomas Schüller said the “stand-off situation has brought no clarity” in Cologne.

“The protests we’ve seen will continue,” he said, “as people continue to demand that the cardinal should not remain archbishop of Cologne.”