Journalists reject Cologne’s confidentiality agreement

Journalists reject Cologne’s confidentiality agreement

GERMANY
The Tablet

January 16, 2021

By Christa Pongratz-Lippitt

An attempt by Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki’s archdiocese to defuse a crisis precipitated by Woelki’s refusal to publish a report on abuse in the archdiocese has backfired dramatically. In 2018 Woelki commissioned a Munich law firm to conduct an independent investigation and a detailed written report on how those responsible in the archdiocese had handled cases of sexual abuse of minors by priests. The cardinal promised that names would be published in the report.

When the report was finished at the end of October 2020, however, Woelki refused to publish it. He had consulted several lawyers, he said, who had warned him that the report had “methodical shortcomings”. He has since ordered a new report from a Cologne law firm that is due out in March.

On 4 January, however, the archdiocese invited eight selected journalists to a background discussion on the Munich report. They would have an opportunity to read the report, they were told, but warned that all names in the report had been redacted and that they would not be allowed make any copies.

On arrival, they were first of all asked to sign a confidentiality agreement which stated: “The journalist pledges to remain completely silent regarding the report presented to him or her.”