His time as Chairman of the Broadcasting Council of Bavarian Broadcasting will last for a while and will end as scheduled.

In return, Prelate Lorenz Wolf, who was heavily incriminated by the Munich abuse report, resigned as head of the Bavarian Catholic Office.

The Bavarian bishops complied with Wolf's request and relieved him of his duties with immediate effect, according to a statement by the Freising Bishops' Conference on Thursday.

Archbishop Cardinal Reinhard Marx had accepted Wolf's request to be relieved of his duties as an official, i.e. head of the ecclesiastical court in the archdiocese.

As head of the Bavarian Catholic Office, Wolf was the contact person for politics, society and business for 13 years.

Lawyer Bettina Nickel, who has been deputy head since 2005, is now running the office on an interim basis.

At the beginning of the new term of office, the Bishops' Conference sent Father Alfons Friedrich from Munich to the BR Broadcasting Council in place of Wolf.

On May 12, the Broadcasting Council will elect a new chairman.

Members of the body such as the FDP member of parliament Helmut Markwort had asked Wolf to resign.

Wolf did not comply with the request.

He apologized to the Broadcasting Council at the beginning of February and expressed his regret at the cases of abuse in the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising.

He asks forgiveness "from the bottom of his heart".

He is ashamed of having taken the blame.

"It's a shame that sexual abuse happened in the church at all," Wolf said.

At the same time, he rejected the allegations made against him in the abuse report by the Westpfahl Spilker Wastl law firm.

Contrary to what the lawyers say, he did participate in the preparation of the report and answered questions on 20 cases on around 140 pages.

Wolf's defense speech was not well received in the Broadcasting Council (FAZ of February 4).

The experts had examined cases of sexual abuse in the years 1945 to 2019 in the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising.

The report provided evidence of at least 497 victims and 235 perpetrators, including 173 priests.

It formulated clear criticism of the administration of office by the Munich archbishops, including Cardinal Marx and the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI.

became.

So far, the report has only had the sharpest personal consequences for Wolf.

He was accused of playing a key role in covering up and downplaying abuse offenses in several cases.

Wolf again denied the allegation.