German Cardinal Prevails Against Press

German Bild newspaper and its author Nikolaus Harbusch are no longer allowed to spread that Cologne Cardinal Woelki "promoted an abusive priest," the Cologne Regional Court ruled May 18.

The incident described by the paper - a 2001 contact between a priest later promoted by Woelki and a not yet 18 years old prostitute - cannot be called an "abuse". The contact was of homosexual nature but without touching and mutually agreed on. The court objected to phrases "sex offender," "abusive priest" and "child abuse," as the prostitute was a male teenager.
Bild had claimed that the priest had confessed to homosexual acts with the prostitute before the police. According to the court ruling, this was also not true.

Picture: Rainer Maria Woelki © Erzbistum Köln, CC BY-SA, #newsTlvrjkqrxk