BERLIN (Reuters) -German prosecutors and police are searching properties belonging to the Archdiocese of Cologne as part of a perjury investigation against Cologne Archbishop Rainer Maria Woelki, the Archdiocese and lawyers representing him said on Tuesday.
Prosecutors said last year they were investigating whether Woelki, one of the most senior clerics in Germany’s Catholic Church, perjured himself in sworn testimony about abuse committed by a priest who died in 2019.
“They are looking for clues that prove or refute the accusation of false testimony against Cardinal Woelki,” said lawyer Ralf Hoecker.
“It will take time until there is a result,” he said in an email, adding that in the end the case would be stopped because the cardinal had told the truth.
The Catholic Church in Germany has for years struggled to deal with the fallout of a historic abuse scandal and criticism that senior clergy failed to act when first told about it.
A report in 2021 found that in Cologne alone, Germany’s largest archdiocese, there had been more than 200 abusers and more than 300 victims, mostly under the age of 14, between 1975 and 2018.
German public broadcaster WDR reported that investigators were searching rooms in the archbishop’s residence, the general vicariate and the curia house.
Prosecutors were not immediately available to comment.
The allegations concern abuse by priest Winfried Pilz who had run a Catholic children’s charity and died in 2019.
WDR had reported last year that its reporters had seen a document indicating Woelki was told about the case earlier than he had said under oath.
The Archdiocese said results of the search would take time.
“By looking into the business documents and e-mails of the Archdiocese, it should be established whether the accusation made against Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of having committed perjury can be proven or, on the contrary, refuted,” it said.
Woelki last year offered his resignation to the Pope.
Rome has not yet made a decision on whether to accept it.
(Reporting by Reuters Television; Writing by Friederike Heine and Madeline Chambers, Editing by Maria Sheahan and Ed Osmond)
