The public prosecutor’s office in Cologne launched preliminary proceedings against Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki on Wednesday. The allegation of false affidavit is being investigated, said senior public prosecutor Ulrich Willuhn.
The trigger for the investigation was an interview with the former assistant to the HR manager in the Archdiocese of Cologne, Hildegard Dahm, published in the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger” on Wednesday. The employee says in the interview that she informed Woelki early on about allegations of abuse against the former Sternsinger boss Winfried Pilz.
She “can’t stand it anymore (…) to know things firsthand that contradict Cardinal Woelki’s public statements, especially in the case of former Sternsinger President Winfried Pilz,” said the Catholic.
The mushroom, who died in 2019, is accused of abuse. In a press law procedure, Woelki assured that the case was only dealt with from the fourth week of June this year.
Dahm said in the interview that she personally created an Excel list for Woelki in January 2015 with all the abuse cases that were current at the time. There were 14 names on this list, including that of Pilz. Her boss took the list with her to a conversation with Woelki. Afterwards she asked her boss what Woelki had said about the list. He replied: “The cardinal was not interested in that at all.” She was then “petrified”.
When the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger” pointed out that Woelki said he was only dealt with the Pilz case in June 2022, Dahm replied: “That is not true. It may be that he didn’t look at the sheet with the mushroom and the other 13 names. But I dealt with it. Absolutely. That’s why I was so appalled by the cardinal’s public self-portrayal.”
From 2013 to 2017, Dahm worked in the Vicariate General – the central administration of the diocese. After that she took over the management of a parish association.
Woelki has been under pressure for years, including criticism of his handling of allegations of abuse. Some time ago, Pope Francis had asked him to submit a request for his resignation. Woelki did that. The Pope has not yet decided whether to accept it. There are other criminal charges against him.
