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TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to Cardinal Numbers, a rexypod ranking all the Cardinals of the Catholic Church we can get our hands on, from the Catacombs to Kingdom Come.

Check out the show notes for sources, further reading, and a transcript.

Today we're discussing another current Cardinal of the Catholic Church, one of the 120 or so people who will choose the next Pope when the time comes.

Please note that this episode includes a general discussion of the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church. I don't get graphic, but it's there.

Rainer Maria Woelki was born on August 18, 1956 in Cologne, Germany, which is in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia on the western end of things. With well over a million residents, Cologne is Germany's fourth largest city and is on the short list of cities with their own dedicated longrunning history pod, The History of Cologne by Willem Fromm. Link in the show notes. (https://podcastaddict.com/podcast/the-history-of-cologne/2535948)

In his early 20s, Rainer did some obligatory military service as part of a unit called the Panzerartillerielehrbataillon. I *probably* would have mentioned his service even if it hadn't given me the opportunity to point out that Panzerartillerielehrbataillon is one word, but I guess we'll never know for sure because that was definitely a factor in my editing decisions for this episode.

Anyways, he was ordained a priest in 1985, at the age of 28, pretty much right on pace when you account for that military stint. As a priest of the Archdiocese of Cologne, he not only served in various chaplaincies, but also as private secretary of Cardinal Joachim Meisner, the then-Archbishop of Cologne.

From 1997 to 2003, Woelki served as director of a boarding school for seminarians. During this time he continued his studies, obtaining a Doctorate in Theology from the Pontificia Università della Santa Croce–that is, the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross–a school in Rome run by Opus Dei.

Presumably he stopped directing the boarding school in 2003 because his white phone rang- ring ring it's Pope John Paul II, here to make him titular bishop of Scampa and auxiliary bishop of Cologne. He was named a canon of Cologne's metropolitan Cathedral chapter later that year. He got involved in affairs for the German Bishops’ Conference, serving on the Commission for vocations and ecclesiastical ministries; and on the Commission for science and culture. As you can see, or at least hear, the titles of offices in bishop's conferences start to read like Roman curial titles, which I suppose isn't too surprising.

Anyways in 2011 that white phone rang again and this time it was Pope Benedict XVI making Bishop Woelki the Archbishop of Berlin, which, given how much we've been going on about the Archdiocese of Cologne in this episode, might be a bit of a surprise but it can't have been completely out of the blue because Woelki was chosen by the Archdioceses’ high metropolitan Cathedral Chapter, which, I admit, isn't something I'm super familiar with specifically but generally speaking Cathedral chapters have historically had a dominant influence in choosing who the bishop would be and that seems to be a custom that still has some staying power in some areas, particularly those with long traditions of doing things through Cathedral Chapters rather than in areas where things were set up air quotes “only” in in recent times–you know, in the last thousand years or so. So, you know, Europe. And in Eastern Catholic churches, whose traditions do not center Vatican appointments.

Anyways, yes, Berlin's Cathedral Chapter wanted Woelki, and they got him, for a span.

In 2012, Archbishop Woelki became Cardinal Woelki, with Pope Benedict making him a Cardinal-Priest with the title of S. Giovanni Maria Vianney. At that point, he was the youngest member of the College of Cardinals, though by the end of the year that spot would be taken by Mar Cleemis, not to mention the also younger Cardinal Tagle.

Also in 2012, Cardinal Woelki was made a member of both the Congregation for Catholic Education and of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity. The next year, like the other Benedict appointees we've mentioned, Cardinal Woelki participated in the March 2013 conclave that elected Pope Francis.

In 2014, Cardinal Woelki was named member of the Congregation for the Clergy, and after three years as Archbishop of Berlin, he was transferred to his old home of the Cologne Archdiocese as its new Archbishop. The next year, because you can't keep a good Roman Curia down, he was named member of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, effectively helping manage the Vatican's pocketbooks and keep things running financially.

More recently, the Archdiocese of Cologne generally and Cardinal Woelki specifically have been focal points in some of the more recent chapters of the ongoing sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church.

On the slight chance that some of my listeners are not aware of that topic in general, there have been thousands and thousands of cases of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests in the last century. One Vatican official put the total number of abusers among priests at between 1.5 and 5 percent, noting that the number was generally in line with other organizations, which is certainly an argument that can be made, but given that Jesus literally told His followers to “be perfect” (Mt 5:48), I don't think it's unreasonable to hold the shepherds of the Church He founded to a higher standard than society at large, and yeah, society at large should also be doing better when it comes to not sexually abusing minors.

I've talked about this before, and I'll talk about it again, not only because it's important to talk about it so efforts to sweep it under the rug fail–and there are such efforts, to be sure– but also because my intention is to talk about everything and this uncomfortable topic is part of “everything”. Plus you'd kind of have to go out of your way to avoid talking about it when talking about Cardinal Woelki. Not because anyone is suggesting he's an abuser himself, but because in 2020 he picked up the stink of a common and decidedly difficult to shake reputation especially particular to higher level clergy: a reputation of seeking to bury such stories when possible.

Right or wrong, the main catalyst for that reputation was a series of comments made by the Independent Commissioner for Issues of Child Sexual Abuse, one Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig. Among other things, Rörig said, quote “There are many indications that Cardinal Woelki may have made a massive mistake with regard to the participation of those affected, transparency and independence from processing”, end quote.

In particular, Rörig accused Cardinal Woelki of promising transparency and then not following through with it, referring in particular to an independent report on the abuse situation within the Archdiocese that Cardinal Woelki had commissioned but which he had prevented from going public, citing unspecified methodological issues and violations of personal rights.

To his credit, Cardinal Woelki did follow up and commission another report, the results of which he did make public in March 2021 in the 800-page Gercke report, linked, like everything else, in the show notes. That certainly was not the end of the matter though, and in September 2021, after an apostolic visitation–basically a Vatican audit– and what the Holy See described as “a long conversation” with the Pope, Cardinal Woelki went on sabbatical for several months, leaving the Archdiocese in the hands of an Apostolic Administrator.

Upon his return to active service in March 2022, Cardinal Woelki submitted his resignation to Pope Francis, who has not yet acted on the offer, though a 2021 Vatican statement did acknowledge Woelki had made quote “major mistakes”, end quote, especially when it comes to communication, and described a quote “crisis of confidence in the archdiocese”, end quote.

In addition to continuing his service in what's now the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity and the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, Cardinal Woelki is also currently serving as a member of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

*Barring any changes to his status*, which is something I could always say but don't always say but am saying today *because reasons*, Rainer Maria Cardinal Woelki is eligible to participate in future conclaves until he turns 80 in 2036.

Today's episode is part of Cardinal Numbers,

and there will be more Cardinal Numbers next week.. Thank you for listening; God bless you all! Thanks, Joe!

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