Ahen Rainer Maria Cardinal Woelki returned to the Rhine from Berlin in September 2014 after a short guest appearance as Archbishop, there was great joy at the decision of the Cologne Cathedral Chapter. It was not forgotten that Woelki had been a loyal servant of his master Joachim Cardinal Meisner for many years. But in the fresh Berlin city air, he seemed to have stepped out of the long shadow of the man whom Pope John Paul II installed as his governor in Cologne in 1987 with a crowbar.
In fact, after four years on the Spree, Woelki, who was born in Cologne, seemed so relaxed and unpretentious that the people of Cologne welcomed him like a prodigal son after the leaden Meisner years. The hearts of the other Rhinelanders just flew to the football fan and (soon) refugee helpers. Internally, on the other hand, it was noted with astonishment that Woelki did not allow himself to be driven by the subject of abuse, but wanted to be the driver himself in clarifying it. He immediately had all the “old cases” presented to him – if only to avoid having to face any nasty surprises later on.
Watching the church in free fall
Eight years later, after a cascade of scandals about victims of abuse and episcopal power, from which only Woelki’s lawyers benefit, the desperation on the Rhine is palpable. The reputation of the church and its membership are in free fall, and the longer Pope Francis allows the man at the head of the (still) strongest archbishopric to do his thing, the more urgent the question is asked in Cologne as to whether and, if so, why back then in Woelki could have been so deceptive.
In Limburg, the same question is still being asked today. There, in 2007, the legendary bishop Franz Kamphaus welcomed his successor, Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, who also came from the Münster diocese, with open arms. Six years later, Tebartz stormed into Rome after lying hopelessly about the illegal financing of his new episcopal house. To this day he only sees himself as a victim of evil forces.
The bishop is accountable to no one
The key to understanding both cases lies in a combination of fatal character traits and the privileges of a bishop in the Catholic Church. In theory, unlike the pope, he is bound by law and order. Like him, however, he is accountable to no one, not even to other bishops. And like the pope, a bishop ultimately decides alone where he wants to lead and how he wants to lead, using which means.
But if, in narcissistic overconfidence, he fulfills the mission that the unchangeable, divine doctrines of faith are not falsified by human reason, then the world not only falls apart into (less and less) friends and (more and more) enemies. Binding to the law, even if it is only that of one’s own church, has no place in such a Manichaean worldview.
One can call this government of the Church in permanent emergency mode a Trumpism in Catholic. It has its counterpart in Jacobinism, with which any resistance to real and supposed changes is denounced as “misanthropic” in the “Synodal Way” reform project. There is no blessing on either.
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