The Catholic Düsseldorf parish of St. Margareta has unloaded the Cologne Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki from a confirmation.
In an open letter, community representatives "urgently" ask him to transfer the date to a representative at the beginning of June.
Former Düsseldorf mayor and FDP member of the Bundestag, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, was one of the 140 signatories of the letter, which was first reported by the newspaper Rheinische Post.
The sacrament of Confirmation can only be carried out by someone “who, as a Christian, is credible in his office and in his actions.
Unfortunately, they are no longer for us, ”write the signatories.
The company celebration should not be instrumentalized in order to look for "lost contact with the grassroots" - and vice versa not for protest actions.
"We feel disrespected one more time"
The letter goes on to say that the church leadership and members had asked the cardinal earlier to refrain from confirmation. “You are still sticking to your intentions. We feel that we are being disregarded once again. ”A conversation between Woelki, members of the parish council and other representatives of the community is planned for next Thursday:“ You do not want media representatives for this. We imagine an open dialogue at eye level to be different! "
The signatories accuse Woelki of fixing himself on "purely legally usable facts" in the course of dealing with abuse.
This is not enough, they continue: “We also need a systemic, moral and theological approach.
The consequences of this have to be implemented. ”One could not see that Woelki was assuming this responsibility.
Many committed people think "very seriously" about leaving the church: "We have lost confidence that a new beginning can be achieved with you as Archbishop."
The background to the unusual event is the public processing of previous cases of sexual abuse by clergy, which has been wrestling in the Archdiocese of Cologne for months.
It is also about naming those responsible who protected the perpetrators and hushed up crimes.
Woelki did not have a first appraisal report published because he considers it to be flawed and not legally secure.
In a report published in March, lawyers working with the criminal lawyer Björn Gercke prove that high officials in the Archdiocese of misconduct in dealing with abuse cases.
Woelki himself is relieved by the Gercke report.
In the affected community in Düsseldorf-Gerresheim, two of the priests against whom allegations had recently been raised were active.
Pastor D., whom Woelki appointed deputy Düsseldorf city dean in 2017 despite allegations of sexual assault and who was recently on leave, was formerly a chaplain there.
Pastor O., who has since died, is accused of having committed a serious abuse of a child.
Woelki was criticized for having taken note of the case after taking office in 2015, but failed to conduct a preliminary canonical investigation and report it to Rome. The cardinal justified this procedure with the then far advanced dementia of the former pastor, which made questioning impossible.