Pope Francis has not accepted the resignation offer submitted by Cologne Archbishop Rainer Maria Woelki, according to an assessment by the Freiburg-based canon law expert Georg Bier.
The Pope had allowed the three-month period stipulated by canon law to elapse and the offer of resignation had therefore “lost all legal force”, Bier wrote in an article for the magazine Herder Korrespondenz published online on Monday.
The cardinal’s offer to resign was “no longer in the world, it can no longer be accepted after the deadline has expired”, the canon law expert wrote.
He added that the pope could nevertheless dismiss Woelki from office at any time due to his pre-eminent position in Catholic canon law. However, he saw no indications that the pope was planning to do so.
Instead, it could be assumed that the Pope had no relevant criticism of Woelki’s conduct in office in the archdiocese of Cologne. “Pope Francis obviously has a high tolerance threshold. That may displease some, perhaps even many. However, it is not to be expected that Pope Francis will be swayed from his line by repeated demands for a decision – which ultimately amount to asking him to retire Cardinal Woelki,” Bier wrote.
In the last three years, Woelki has been repeatedly criticised for his handling of the reappraisal of sexual abuse. In 2021, Francis sent the cardinal on a sabbatical lasting several months, which ended in early March 2022.
At the time, the Pope asked Woelki to tender an offer of resignation. However, he has not responded to it yet. Several German bishops repeatedly urged Francis to make a decision.
Originally reported by KNA Germany.
