Reuters
Prosecutors to investigate possible perjury charge against German cardinal
German prosecutors are due to investigate whether Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, one of the German Catholic Church’s most senior clerics, perjured himself earlier this year in sworn testimony about abuse committed by a now dead priest. The Archbisopric of Cologne confirmed on Wednesday that they had been informed about the planned investigation into Woelki’s testimony in August, in which he had denied earlier knowledge of the abuse by priest Winfried Pilz, who died in 2019. Allegations that the Church failed to react when it had knowledge of abuse such as that committed by Pilz, who headed a Catholic children’s charity, have pitched into deep crisis a national church which, by virtue of its wealth, has outsize influence on the Catholic Church globally.
