German cardinal to pay fee to settle perjury probe related to abuse case

BERLIN (Reuters) - One of Germany's most senior clerics, part of the conclave gathering to elect a new pope, must pay 26,000 euros ($29,500) to a charity to settle an allegation of perjury linked to a historic case of sexual abuse, prosecutors said on Tuesday.

They added they would end their investigation into the cardinal on condition of the payment being made.

Cardinal Rainer Woelki, the archbishop of Cologne, was under investigation for testimony he gave about abuse committed by a priest who died in 2019.

The probe found reasonable suspicion that the cardinal had made false statements on two occasions during his legal dispute with the Bild tabloid in August 2022 and March 2023, the Cologne prosecutor said in a statement.

The false statements were, however, attributed to negligence.

"I am pleased and grateful that we have now come to a conclusion. We can now devote all our energy to the challenging tasks of the future," Woelki said in a statement published by the Archdiocese of Cologne.

The prosecutor decided against pursuing charges and a possible short prison sentence for the 68-year-old Woelki, instead ordering that he pay the fee to a charitable organisation that is not part of the church.

Woelki accepts the end of the proceedings under the condition set by the prosecutor, thus waiving his right to have the allegations clarified in court, the archdiocese said.

If the fee is not paid by the end of the month, the prosecutor said it would resume its investigation and pursue charges.

The Catholic Church in Germany has for years struggled to deal with the fallout of historic abuse and criticism that senior clergy failed to act when first told about it.

A report in 2021 found that in Cologne alone, Germany's largest archdiocese, there had been more than 200 abusers and more than 300 victims, mostly under the age of 14, between 1975 and 2018.

($1 = 0.8827 euros)

(Reporting by Rachel More; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)