archbishop of Cologne. The announcement followed the completion of a complicated process that governs the determination of a new archbishop of Cologne and which requires several levels of ecclesiastical and civil review. Following Meisner's retirement, the archdiocesan cathedral chapter, which consists of the leading priests of the archdiocese, composed a list of candidates, which was passed to the pope via the papal nuncio in Berlin. The Holy See was entitled to amend the list of candidates before returning it to the cathedral chapter, which then elected from it the new archbishop. The ecclesiastical appointment had then to be further certified by the regional government in Düsseldorf. According to the terms of the concordat governing Catholic ecclesiastical affairs in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the regional parliament must certify that the newly nominated archbishop poses "no concerns of a political nature". He was installed in Cologne on 20 September. In October 2016 he was appointed a member of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments by Pope Francis for a five-year renewable term. In April 2018, Woelki led a group of seven bishops who appealed to the Vatican after Germany's bishops approved a proposal to allow Protestant spouses of Catholics to receive the Eucharist. The bishops argued that the German bishops did not have the authority to undertake such a measure. The proposal to expand Holy Communion was rejected on 25 May by Cardinal-elect Luis Ladaria Ferrer, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, who said that there were "a series of problems of considerable importance". In a February 2019 interview, Woelki criticized ideas that Church teaching can be changed in order to more closely align with the modern world, saying, "The Church stands for truths that transcend time." He renounced calls to abolish clerical celibacy and to ordain women. Woelki expressed his thoughts again in an article the following month, in which he argued: "The Church cannot be bullied into changing her doctrine if change contradicts the spirit of the gospel." He continued: Woelki wrote that he was not promoting "unreflective traditionalism" or the practice of "[circling] the wagons", but rather "growth and revitalization". Handling of sexual child abuse cases In 2011 a victim of child abuse was paid a large settlement based on the probable gravity of the case. Woelki decided in 2015 not to notify Rome of this case because of