At a hearing at the Cologne Higher Regional Court on Thursday, it became clear that the 15th Civil Senate does not believe that "Bild's" appeal against a decision by the Cologne Regional Court has any chance of success.
A hearing date has been set for 25 April.
According to the judgement of the regional court in April 2023, "Bild" may not publish that the archbishop had promoted a priest even though he was aware of two incriminating documents against the clergyman.
According to the court, this is an inadmissible and therefore defamatory statement of fact.
The "Bild" newspaper was unable to prove the statement in two online reports from March 2021 that the archbishop was aware of a police warning against the priest's involvement in youth work and an incriminating interview transcript from his personnel file at the time of the promotion in 2017.
Woelki stated that he had only heard of a non-criminal sexual contact between the priest and a 16-year-old in 2001 and of "further rumours", by which he meant unproven allegations.
Argumentation of the lower court followed
The Higher Regional Court made it clear that it followed the reasoning of the lower court.
Furthermore, it saw no reason to question the regional court's reasoning.
The regional court had not heard all of the persons requested by "Bild" as witnesses.
Two witnesses questioned - the former secretary of Woelki's predecessor Cardinal Joachim Meisner and the former abuse commissioner of the Archdiocese of Cologne, Oliver Vogt - had, in the opinion of the Regional Court, not confirmed the specific questions of evidence.
The Higher Regional Court also agreed with this view.
In the civil proceedings, the press chamber at the regional court had also heard Woelki in person at the end of March 2023, where he substantiated his position.
A statement made by the cardinal under oath during the court hearing led to investigations by the Cologne public prosecutor's office on suspicion of perjury.
The cardinal declared in court that not only did he have no knowledge of the two documents in 2017, but that "to this day" no one had told him about them.
In contrast, a prosecutor refers to a letter Woelki sent to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome in November 2018.
The letter reports on numerous accusations against the promoted priest, including the minutes of the conversation.
Woelki explained that his letter to Rome referred to the minutes of the interview, but without including any details.
There was therefore no contradiction with his statements in court.
Meanwhile, the investigations by the public prosecutor's office are continuing.
Last summer, they searched several properties belonging to the Archdiocese of Cologne and its email service provider.
According to its own information, it is currently analysing electronic data with a volume of 835 gigabytes.
This includes 800,000 confiscated emails with half a million attachments from the archdiocese as well as around 120,000 chat messages and attachments from Woelki's private IT devices.
Due to other "Bild" reports on Woelki's dealings with the promoted priest, the Higher Regional Court had already banned four of six statements by the newspaper in the second and final instance a year ago.