Kardinal Woelki had a plan – at least that’s what it was supposed to look like. For a long time the Philosophical-Theological College (PTH) of the Steyler Missionaries in St. Augustin near Bonn, like so many other religious colleges, was too small to live and too big to die. Why not take on the sponsorship of the state-recognized institution with its focus on missiology, which is unique in Germany, so that theology students from Asia or Africa would not have to study in Rome if they wanted to do a doctorate in Europe? And why not set up a small but fine church university near the Institute for Catholic Theology at the University of Cologne, which would supplement the range of courses for prospective religion teachers and enable church and state-recognized university degrees to be obtained? In any case, Rainer Maria Cardinal Woelki spoke to the FAZ in July 2019 that in view of major social and technological challenges, a “linguistic theology as a social science” was needed.
Woelki left nothing to chance during the preparatory work for taking over the sponsorship of the PTH and the relocation to Cologne. In the person of the long-standing head of the Berlin-Brandenburg Catholic Office, Martina Köppen, Woelki brought a lawyer well-versed in church-state issues from the Spree to the Rhine. Signals came from the CDU-led North Rhine-Westphalian state government under Armin Laschet, especially the state chancellery led by Nathanael Liminski, which indicated goodwill.
And as archbishop of Cologne and as chairman of the commission responsible for science and culture of the bishops’ conference, the cardinal, who received his doctorate from Opus Dei University in Rome, has direct access to the educational congregation in the Vatican. She didn’t need to be asked twice. Woelki confidant Christoph Ohly was appointed rector of the PTH on October 1, 2019, in violation of the statutes of the university. But Ohly was a canonist – and the chair in question was occupied. Doesn’t matter. The educational congregation made him an ordinary. Rafael Rieger OFM, the previous chair holder, was unemployed.
“A bold idea from the start”
Despite small bumps like these, Woelki’s story sounded convincing – and that far beyond Cologne. For the “Foundation for the Promotion of Education, Science and Research in the Archdiocese of Cologne”, which took over the sponsorship of the “Cologne University for Catholic Theology” (KHKT) on February 1, 2020, he gained the position of scientist and university specialist in addition to a few confidants the former President of the Technical University of Munich, Wolfgang A. Herrmann, and the long-serving master builder of the Cologne Cathedral, Barbara Schock-Werner.
The committees responsible for approving the Archdiocese’s budget were also persuaded by Woelki and Finance Director Gordon Sobbeck. Church tax funds, the diocese leadership indicated, would not be needed for the operation of the university. Instead, money from the “Found for the Archbishop’s Special Needs” (BB-Fonds) would be used for the start-up financing, which would require a total of 7.2 million euros in the first six years. But it was also heard that wealthy donors, known to the cardinal by name, were ready to build up endowment assets from the proceeds of which the university would support itself if, contrary to expectations, the country should close its eyes on the wish to donate the KHKT in recognition of its contribution to refinance teacher training.
