BERLIN (AP) 鈥� Pope Francis has decided to leave in office a prominent German archbishop who has faced criticism for his handling of the church's sexual abuse scandal, but the cleric has decided to take a several-month time out, his archdiocese said Friday.
The Vatican said that the pope 鈥渋s counting on鈥� the archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, the archdiocese said in a statement. However, it added that Woelki asked for a 鈥渟piritual time out鈥� from mid-October to the beginning of March, and that the pontiff granted it. The aim is 鈥渢o be able to think and to open space for confidence to grow again," the statement added.
Woelki has become a deeply divisive figure in the German church.
A report commissioned by the archbishop and found 75 cases in which eight high-ranking officials 鈥� including Woelki鈥檚 late predecessor 鈥� neglected their duties to either follow up on, report or sanction cases of alleged abuse by clergy and lay church employees, and failed to take care of the victims.
Hamburg Archbishop Stefan Hesse, previously a senior church official in Cologne, was faulted for 11 cases of neglecting his duty. Hesse offered his resignation to Francis, who eventually last week.
The report absolved Woelki himself of any neglect of his legal duty with respect to abuse victims. He subsequently said he made mistakes in past cases involving sexual abuse allegations, but made clear he had no intention of resigning.
Woelki infuriated many local Catholics by citing legal concerns to keep under wraps a first report on how local church officials reacted when priests were accused of sexual abuse. He commissioned the new report 鈥� an 800-page investigation based on church files and put together by a German law firm.
A pair of papal envoys were dispatched to Cologne in June to investigate possible mistakes by senior church officials in handling past sexual abuse cases and the 鈥渃omplex pastoral situation鈥� in the church there.
During Woelki's absence, auxiliary bishop Rolf Steinhaeuser will run the archdiocese as an 鈥渁postolic administrator.鈥�
The Associated Press
