on 11 july 2014 it was announced that woelki would succeed joachim meisner as 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".