In 2020, Archbishop Stefan Hesse of Hamburg asked the Vatican to investigate his handling of sex-abuse cases during his tenure as vicar general of the Cologne archdiocese. Last September, Pope Francis declined his resignation.

Archbishop Hesse has now offered “the first testimony ever given by a German Catholic bishop in a court case on abuse,” according to the report. In 2011, the prelate allowed a suspended priest accused of abusing a minor to concelebrate Masses.