According to the testimony of a witness in court, the Cologne public prosecutor's office has now started investigations against Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki in a second case.
This was announced by a spokesman for the public prosecutor's office of the Catholic News Agency on Wednesday.
Here too – as in the first case – the allegation is that Woelki may have given a false affidavit in the course of a press law procedure.
In the legal dispute, in which the cardinal wants statements from the “Bild” newspaper to be banned, the long-time secretary of Woelki’s predecessor, Joachim Meisner, testified last week.
She shared her experiences with a priest friend who has been accused of abuse.
Among other things, the priest told her that he went to the sauna with altar boys.
She traveled along on youth trips so that she could admonish him "if he became lewd again with the young people".
She told Woelki all of this in a telephone call he had requested.
This took place after she ended her friendship with the priest in May 2009 and before the then Auxiliary Bishop Woelki was appointed Archbishop of Berlin in June 2011.
Later, as Archbishop of Cologne, Woelki promoted the priest.
The "Bild" writes that at the time of the promotion in 2017 he knew incriminating content from the clergyman's personal file and a police warning.
The cardinal denies this.
He swore that he was not aware of the personnel file at the time.
He had heard of the man having sexual contact with a prostitute and other rumours.
However, advocates for the pastor had explained to him that none of the rumors had ever been confirmed.
The public prosecutor's office in Cologne had initially rejected investigations against the archbishop in the matter because they did not see sufficient initial suspicion.
According to the testimony of the witness, this is now the case, according to Willuhn.
The second investigation also revolves around an allegedly false affidavit.
Woelki explains that allegations of abuse against the former "Sternsinger" boss Winfried Pilz were only dealt with at the end of June.
A church employee contradicted this in a newspaper interview.
She had already dealt with the case with the cardinal in 2015 through a list she had drawn up that included the names of accused priests, including Pilz.