Because the Archdiocese of Cologne is said to have held decisive documents in a serious abuse, a organization concerned has now filed a complaint with the Cologne public prosecutor.
Did the lawyers of Cologne Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki provide untrue information in an abuse process? Matthias Katsch, founder and spokesman for the affected organization “square table”, is convinced and therefore filed a complaint together with three lawyers. The accusation: suspected of attempted process fraud.
Matthias Katsch shows im WDR-InterView that those affected by sexual violence in court are always the weaker when it comes to the mighty Catholic Church. “The criminal complaint has the important task of checking whether it is right things that the church remains on the longer lever because it decides what information it brings from its own files in such a civil process.” The victim remains in the evidence because it has no access to these files.
Matthias Katsch from the “square table” affected.
Archdiocese denies responsibility for abuse by priests
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In this case, the victim is Melanie F .. For years she was misused by her care father, a clergyman in the early 1980s. He had included her in his household at the age of 15. The crimes are time -barred. Melanie F. cannot act against the priest, but only against the church as an institution. It demands more than 800,000 euros in pain and suffering and compensation. The archbishopric does not contest the priest’s crimes, but does not want to be liable.
Dem WDR There are now documents that give an insight into the deciding of the archbishopric 40 years ago. The eight letters, partly by the then Archbishop and Cardinal Joseph Höffner, show how intensively the responsible people deal with questions that are now part of the pain and suffering process in the early 1980s.
The fact that these files, which actually only have the church are now available, is thanks to another legal process.
Does the church have to adhere to the actions of the clergy?
Because the perpetrator, Bernd Ue. was sentenced to twelve years in prison in a criminal trial in early 2022. Nine women performed as those affected by 110 abuse, which were not yet time -barred. Melanie F. was called as a witness at the time and had told for the first time in her life that she too was his victim.
A central question in the care of the foster daughter against the archbishopric is now: does the church have to adhere to the actions of the spiritual or did the abuse in the “private”, as a father of care?
In a different abuse, the Archdiocese of Cologne had to pay 300,000 euros in pain and suffering and compensation to a former valet. Because abuse of valets clearly happens in the work area of a priest, the judgment said. At Melanie F., however, the judges doubted about it in their previous assessments during the trial. The next court date is only on July 1st.
Documents prove: Archdiocese provided conditions
What can now be read from the documents? The advertisers refer to a letter that the then head of the seminary at his student Bernd Ue describe a crucial letter. writes. It says: “[…] that they put on an unusual burden for these children in their work as a chaplain “. The authors of the complaint emphasize that it does not mean there,” in addition to working as a chaplain “, but” in their work “.
Bernd Ue. himself writes that the children are primarily concerned with “intellectual advice and leadership”. Melanie F. had to be baptized extra Catholic at the time, went to communion. And she was also a valet in the trade fairs of her care father, as she reported.
Melanie F. showed himself in WDR-The conversation carefully facilitated the letters and protocols from the 1980s: “Finally facts. Black on white. Truly existing documents.” They should now prove what they and their nursing brother already emphasized several times. The care father was always on duty as a priest. The phone could ring at any time of the day and night. And if he immediately took the confession from her shortly after the abuse in the bathtub, it was also an official act.
Melanie F. advises with her lawyer.
Bernd Ue. Should set the housekeeper
Melanie F. already said this regular abuse in the bathroom WDR-Interview three years ago, might have noticed a housekeeper. But there was no. The diocese documents now show that a housekeeper was the condition of Cardinal Höffner for priest UE. the children were allowed to record at all.
In a letter to UE. From May 1980 it says: “The permission to take over the children in their household […] will only be given to you if you have found a suitable housekeeper. “That this condition of the diocese repeats several times, but was then not checked that Melanie FS values lawyers as a violation of the duty of care by the church.
Did the lawyers of the Church hold documents back?
It could be crucial for the complaint for process fraud, as the lawyers of Cardinal Woelki dealt with the condition of a housekeeper. When they wrote their first complaint, only they had an insight into the documents, but not the victims and their lawyers. At that time Woelki’s lawyers wrote in the lawsuit “It was […] thought that Ue. a housekeeper should set. “The difference between” planned “and the housekeeper as a condition, melanie fs calls a lawyer” dishonest “. At a short -term request from the WDR the archbishopric has not yet reacted.
Matthias Katsch, the advertiser and representative of affected people, found the procedure of the diocese lawyers as “indecent” in court. Against better knowledge, they would have denied facts in court or presented differently than show their own files “.
Melanie F. remains thoughtful: “I find it very sad that these documents existed and the church knew it and we had to take over the burden of proof and we were always informed that we would have no evidence more or less.” She hopes that the court will now see that “what my foster brother and I have told corresponds to the truth”.
Because only with the help of the court, says Melanie F., can at least stop a little justice.
