Accompanied by protests, the Archbishop of Cologne, Rainer Maria Cardinal Woelki, ended his five-month break and resumed his official duties.
As the Archdiocese announced on Wednesday, Woelki offered Pope Francis his resignation.
However, the Pope "ordered" that Woelki resume his duties.
He will decide "in due course" about Woelki's resignation.
Thomas Jansen
Editor in Politics.
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The chairman of the diocesan council, the highest lay body in the archdiocese, expressed criticism of the Pope's actions.
The mayor of Solingen, Tim Kurzbach, told the Catholic News Agency (KNA) that the resignation offered by the archbishop could have already been decided during his five-month break.
"The Pope now has a great deal of responsibility as to whether this diocese goes into a meltdown or not." The Maria 2.0 reform initiative held a rally against Woelki's return on the Cologne Cathedral Square.
Woelki asks for a chance for a new beginning
In a pastoral letter published on Wednesday by Woelkis, in which he addressed the Catholics in his archdiocese, he said that it was clear to him that for many his return was associated with uncertainty, incomprehension, distrust and even rejection of his person, "as well as one certain concern about how things will continue in our Archdiocese".
He is sorry that this time is "such a stressful time" for many people in the church and it hurts him "that I too am responsible for this situation," says Woelki.
Regarding his offer to resign from office, the Cologne cardinal wrote: During his time off, it was particularly important for him “to surrender myself completely and unreservedly to Christ, the Lord of the Church, as on the day of my ordination, the attitude of ‘not wanting anything too much’. , but to give everything, really everything freely to God.”
As an expression of "this attitude of inner freedom" he made his office as archbishop of Cologne available to the pope, "so that he too is free to decide what serves the welfare of the church of Cologne the most".
In his letter, Woelki also asks the Catholics in the archdiocese for "openness, your patience, that you give me, no, us, another chance".
The Cologne cardinal assures that he will “not simply return unchanged as if nothing had happened during this time”.
He had time to "face the omissions, the mistakes and the guilt in my life and also to see and appreciate the successes and the encouragement - and to learn from both".
Woelki goes on to say that during the break, "a lot of things got moving that had hardened in me in an uncomfortable way due to the increasingly tense situation in the church and the increasing, often very personal hostilities against me".
This applies to connections between participation and leadership, opportunities for pastoral development and necessary reforms in the church through to systemic changes as a consequence of sexual, spiritual and structural abuse.
"Compass for my thoughts and actions" is for him "the perspective of those affected by abuse," writes the Archbishop.
He knows about the insufficient handling of abuse, "about the misconduct of those responsible overall and about irritations in the church in Germany and the world church".
Woelki: "The situation hasn't gotten any easier"
The Cologne cardinal also assures that he realizes that the situation has not gotten any easier since October last year.
A break in itself doesn't solve any problems.
In the past few weeks, all the relevant bodies have expressed skepticism or rejection of Woelki's return.
The Pope ordered Woelki to take a "spiritual break" in September after a Vatican investigation into what was happening in the archdiocese.
Francis gave the cardinal a clean record in terms of canon law: the Archbishop of Cologne did not cover up sexual abuse.
However, the pope had come to believe that the cardinal had "significantly" contributed to a "crisis of confidence" in the archdiocese "that has disturbed many believers".
Woelki made "big mistakes in the question of the approach to the processing, especially at the level of communication".