Survivors of abuse within the Catholic Church are urging the Vatican to take action against Cologne Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, following years of controversy and a newly closed investigation.

The plaintiffs accuse Woelki of shielding perpetrators and retraumatizing victims through his handling of abuse cases in the archdiocese.

The complaint, submitted by all 12 members of the survivors’ advisory board at the German Bishops’ Conference, was drafted by physician and board member Katharina Siepmann.

“The affected often experience the cardinal’s behavior as offensive,” said Siepmann, who suffered three years of severe abuse as a child and has served on the board since early this year.

The body was established in 2022 to represent victims and advise the Church.

The group’s formal complaint against Woelki refers to alleged breaches of church law, not state law. “We ultimately hope that officials in Rome — and the pope himself — will view the cardinal’s behavior as unacceptable and intervene,” Siepmann told German broadcaster WDR.

In May, Cologne prosecutors announced that Woelki would not face perjury charges in connection with his sworn statements about when he learned of abuse allegations in his archdiocese. The archbishop had been under investigation for more than two years.

Woelki, who remains a cardinal and Archbishop of Cologne, took part in the conclave that chose Pope Leo XIV.

The small town of Bohmte near the city of Osnabrück in the northwestern state of Lower Saxony was the scene of a spectacular accident that left two people seriously injured, including a seven-year-old boy.

For as yet unknown reasons, local police reported, a car appears to have come off the road at high speed before colliding with a parked vehicle and crashing through a hedge.

It then landed on a trampoline, hitting and injuring the child who was playing on it, and bounced into the attic of a barn.

To read more about the bizarre chain of events, click here.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is set to meet top executives from major German firms on Monday in a bid to restore investor confidence and revive the struggling economy.

Representatives from around 30 companies — including Siemens and Deutsche Bank — are expected to attend the talks in Berlin, according to sources cited by dpa. More than a dozen firms listed on the DAX, Germany’s main stock index, are among those invited.

The meeting will focus on the “Made for Germany” initiative, launched by Siemens and Deutsche Bank, which aims to strengthen the country’s investment climate. Participating firms are expected to outline upcoming projects and signal readiness to commit fresh capital.

After two years of recession and amid a bleak outlook for 2025, Merz is urging companies to ramp up domestic investment. His government, which took office in May, has approved multi-billion-euro tax relief packages to stimulate growth.

A government spokesperson last week pointed to the recently passed €500 billion infrastructure and climate fund, saying public investment will lead the way — but private sector participation is essential.

Once Europe’s growth engine, the German economy has been hit hard by inflation, energy price shocks, and mounting global competition in the wake of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

Guten morgen from the DW newsroom, overlooking the Rhine River in Bonn — the former capital of West Germany.

You join us as Chancellor Friedrich Merz gets ready to woo some of Germany’s biggest business bosses to help get the sluggish economy back on its feet.

Top names like Siemens and Deutsche Bank are expected talks in Berlin, along with more than a dozen other DAX-listed giants.

About 30 firms are set to join what’s being billed as a major push to rebuild investor confidence in the country’s economic future.

Merz is under pressure after two back-to-back years of recession and little sign that 2025 will turn things around.

Follow along for the latest on what Germany is talking about on Monday, July 21.