Cardinal Woelki from Cologne just can’t get out of the headlines. This time it is not about withheld reports or high numbers of people leaving the church. It’s about an office chair.
Cologne – Archbishop Rainer Maria Woelki’s legal advisor was dismissed without notice because she took her office chair home with her at the beginning of the corona pandemic.
It is “the most absurd reason for resignation” that he has ever heard in his career, said her lawyer Stephan Vielmeier on Friday in a hearing before the labor court in Cologne. As he explained, it is a special, back-friendly office chair that the legal advisor took with her into the home office. Vielmeier mockingly admitted: “Yes, she did not ask Cardinal Woelki personally beforehand.”
The top of the largest German diocese was not very forgiving. The archbishopric’s lawyer, Wolfgang Glöckner, emphasized during the hearing: “It is an object of considerable value that has been taken away from here.” You couldn’t do that, and certainly not “clandestinely”. The action was “illegal”. “There is not a single office chair that could be taken home in Corona times,” Glöckner clarified. There is no exception for the legal advisor. In addition, she reported sick shortly afterwards. “She didn’t use the chair for the home office.”
Does the dispute have deeper causes?
According to her lawyer, the justiciar suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. For years she had to work through the files on cases of child sexual abuse by priests of the archdiocese. The details were shocking and extremely stressful. Vielmeier spoke of a “campaign” by the archdiocese against his client.
The lawyer is suing the dismissal and also demands at least 50,000 euros in compensation for pain and suffering. “Even the Archdiocese of Cologne is not above the law,” said her lawyer. However, the settlement date on Friday did not bring any rapprochement between the parties. The court may now want to rule on the matter on January 18 of next year.
Observers assume that the argument has deeper causes than an office chair that has been taken away. The legal advisor is not the only senior manager Woelki has recently separated from. The archbishopric has been in a crisis since the cardinal decided last year not to publish a report he had commissioned on how diocese officials deal with allegations of abuse. He gave legal reasons for this. Instead, he commissioned a new report. This decision led to a wave of resignations from the church – and also to some great bitterness within the diocese administration.
In June, two representatives of the Pope examined the situation in Cologne and then submitted a report to Francis. Since then, everyone has been waiting eagerly for a word from the Pope. But so far none. Also on this Friday at twelve noon – when the Vatican usually announces such decisions – no news came from Rome. So the unresolved situation continues. And that’s frustrating for everyone involved, regardless of which side they are on. dpa
