COLOGNE (GERMANY)
Globe Echo [London, England]
July 6, 2023
By David Sadler
Pope Francis has dismissed a pastor convicted of multiple abuses from the clergy. According to the Archdiocese of Cologne, the former clergyman will finally lose all rights and privileges associated with priestly ordination.
A Catholic minister sentenced to 12 years in prison for multiple abuses has been released from the clergy. At the request of Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, Pope Francis imposed this maximum penalty under canon law, as announced by the Archdiocese of Cologne.
As a result, the former clergyman will lose all rights and privileges associated with priestly ordination forever. According to the Archdiocese, he is no longer allowed to administer the sacraments, to be pastoral or to exercise the priestly ministry in any way. The ecclesiastical proceedings against the pastor were thus concluded.
Dismissal meets approval
Archbishop Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne welcomed the decision from Rome. The dismissal is more than appropriate, “even though I know that the suffering of those affected cannot be made up for with it. I stand for a consistent path of prevention and education,” Cardinal Woelki is quoted as saying in a statement from the Archdiocese of Cologne.
Serious Abuse Conviction
In February 2022, the Cologne Regional Court sentenced the former Wuppertal pastor to a total of twelve years in prison for serious sexual abuse and sexual assaults against children and young people in a total of 110 cases.
He also had to pay damages of 5,000, 10,000 and 35,000 euros to three victims and bear the costs of the proceedings. From 1993 to 2018, he sexually abused nine girls in Gummersbach, Wuppertal and Zülpich, some of them severely. The youngest victim was only nine years old.
Other sexual offenses against six other girls dating back to June 1979 were not included in the proceedings because they were already statute-barred. There had already been investigations against the priest in 2010, but these were initially discontinued. After an internal church investigation by the intervention agency of the Archdiocese of Cologne for abuse, the investigations were resumed.