In room 142 of the Cologne district court, one of the largest in the house, many a spectacular trial will have been conducted.

And not only many a defendant, but also many a witness will have turned up there over the years who had never dreamed in their lives that they would ever have to give a public account of their actions and omissions.

Daniel Deckers

responsible for “The Present” in the political editorial team.

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On this Thursday everything comes together and leaves most of those present "icy cold down their backs" again and again, just as the presiding judge at the district court Christoph Kaufmann said he felt while studying the case files: Here Hans-Bernhard Ue ., a Catholic priest who, according to current knowledge, sexually abused prepubescent girls for decades almost unmolested, there a witness called Günter Assenmacher conjuring up “aporia” and “dilemma”. He was not just any small cog in the big diocese machinery, but held the office of chief judge in the Archdiocese of Cologne for more than 25 years. As such, he not only dealt with hundreds of annulment proceedings a year, but also with the canonical sanctioning of clergymen,who had molested children or young people.

Nieces under family pressure

But there have not been many of these in the Archdiocese of Cologne in recent years, if Assenmacher's statements are taken at face value. He has been involved in a good 20 criminal proceedings since 1995 as a so-called official, the 69-year-old cleric lectures with an undertone that is intended to make the audience believe that he is basically a very small light and that is the only reason why he has to appear in court today because he was way too helpful. But not in relation to the accused, who was suspended from his priestly duties in the autumn of 2010 in accordance with the rules after allegations of abuse had been made anonymously and the Archdiocese had inspected the files of the public prosecutor's office. Assenmacher, who had studied theology with him for two years, wants tonever spoke personally during the period in question – which Ue. according to the protocol of a survey in the Cologne General Vicariate in April 2019. No, the man with the carefully coiffed white hair in the witness chair gives the impression that in hindsight he should have done nothing at all in this case than to give advice out of friendliness that he was convinced of at the time that it was correct.

Because instead of reporting a suspected case to the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, as has been required since 2001, the report in the Ue. omitted at his instigation. And that, although the legal adviser Daniela Sch., who together with the then head of the main department of pastoral care, today's Archbishop Stefan Hesse, was responsible for contact with the state judiciary and with the legal counsel of those affected, even then after ways had sought canonical proceedings against Ue. initiate when the possibilities of state criminal prosecution had long been exhausted. She had had to drop the preliminary investigation without any result after the three nieces who had accused her uncle of serious sexual abuseexercised their right to refuse to testify under massive family pressure. The legal adviser tried to get in touch with one of the lawyers for those affected, but was informed in spring 2011 that she was not in a position to testify in church proceedings either.

For Assenmacher and Hess, this information came at just the right time.

Despite all the legal counsel's urging, Assenmacher did nothing to initiate preliminary church investigations.

Hesse, on the other hand, had already written down the hopeful expectation at the end of 2010 that if the public prosecutor's office dropped the proceedings, Ue.

be rehabilitated immediately.

A year later the time had come.

Ue.

returned to his position as hospital chaplain in Wuppertal.

Four years later, Archbishop Joachim Cardinal Meisner appointed him Deputy City Dean.