The Archbishop of Cologne, Rainer Maria Cardinal Woelki, is coming under increasing pressure after a report about the exploitation of the Archdiocese's Advisory Council for Affected People.

High-ranking clergymen in the archdiocese are demanding a statement from Woelkis on this allegation.

If the strategy was actually approved by Woelki, this would correspond to “a moral declaration of bankruptcy by the diocese leadership,” wrote Cologne city dean Robert Kleine on Facebook on Monday evening.

The archdiocese and the cardinal “can and must not afford any more communication errors and must clearly state what the PR consultants were commissioned to do”.

Bonn City Dean Wolfgang Picken said: "If the Archdiocese's Advisory Council for Affected Persons was deliberately used as an instrument, that makes the accusation already in the room understandable that Cardinal Woelki had abused victims again and accepted their re-traumatization".

Wuppertal city dean Bruno Kurth also demanded an explanation from Woelki.

"The events described would, if they turn out to be true, massively damage all honest efforts in our communities and in the diocese to clarify and deal with the sexual abuse," he said.

Those affected would be violated once again in their dignity by this "instrumentalization".

According to a report by the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger” on Friday, PR consultant Woelki and his then vicar general Markus Hofmann advised in October 2020 to inform the archbishopric’s Advisory Council for Affected Persons at short notice about the long-decided not to publish the first abuse report by the Munich law firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl (WSW). to be able to better justify them to the public.

The PR people also gave precise instructions on how to best manipulate those affected.

Woelki apparently followed these instructions in detail.

The crisis of confidence resulting from the non-publication of the report continues to this day.