According to The Independent,
Germany’s biggest Catholic-owned publishing house has been rocked by disclosures that it has been selling thousands of pornographic novels with titles such as Sluts Boarding School and Lawyer’s !@#$% with the full assent of the country’s leading bishops.
The revelations made in the publishing-industry newsletter Buchreport concern Weltbild, a company with an annual €1.7bn (£1.5bn) turnover and 6,400 employees. It is Germany’s largest bookseller after Amazon and wholly owned by the Catholic Church.
Buchreport revealed that Weltbild’s massive assortment of titles available to customers online includes some 2,500 “erotic” books with unmistakably lewd titles including Call Me Slut!, Take Me Here, Take Me Now! and Lawyer’s !@#$%, to name a few. The publisher’s website also pictures the titles’ lascivious dust jackets that feature colour photographs of scantily clad women in high heels and erotic underwear.
Hmmm. So what’s the company have to say for itself?
Yesterday, Carel Haff, Weltbild’s managing director, was quoted as saying that the revelations had provoked “a very intense and critical dialogue” within the company. He said discussions were under way about possibly limiting the assortment of titles that would be available in future.
“Dialogue” and “possibility limiting” in the future? Doesn’t sound like an adequate response to me. Wonder what their bosses have to say.
Catholic bishops responded with a statement claiming that “a filtering system failure” at the publishing house had allowed the books to stray on to the market. “We will put a stop to the distribution of possibly pornographic content in future,” they said.
Well, that’s good. Although: “Possibly pornographic”? Could be a translation issue. Perhaps they mean it’ll be stopped whether it is actually pornographic or on the fringe of outright porn. If so, problem solved, then, right?
But Bernhard Müller, editor of the Catholic magazine PUR, dismissed the clerics’ reaction as grossly hypocritical. He alleged that the pornography scandal at Weltbild had been going on for at least a decade with the Church’s full knowledge. Mr Müller said that in 2008, a group of concerned Catholics had sent bishops a 70-page document containing irrefutable evidence that Weltbild published books that promoted pornography, Satanism and magic. They demanded that the publisher withdraw the titles.
But their protests appear to have been completely ignored. Writing in the Die Welt newspaper, Mr Müller said most of the bishops refused to respond to the charges. “The sudden proclaimed astonishment of many church leaders that pornographic material is being distributed by their publishing house, is play acting – bad play acting,” Mr Müller said. “Believers have been complaining to their bishops about this for years.”
Maybe we need a little more background on this situation.
The Catholic Church bought Weltbild more than 30 years ago. The publisher has gradually transformed itself into one of Germany’s largest media companies with the help of some €182m of Catholic Church tax levied on believers. To increase its profits, in 1998 the company merged with five other publishing houses that market pornographic titles. One of them is Droemer Knaur, which is 50 per cent church-owned. Another is Blue Panther Books, which was excluded from the list of participating publishers at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair allegedly because of the pornographic content of is titles.
Okay, and so have the bishops tried to take any action in the past?
It emerged yesterday that in an attempt to clear itself of potential embarrassment over the sale of porn, the Catholic Church tried to sell Weltbild in 2009. But the bishops apparently abandoned the idea after they failed to get the price they were asking.
I have to say that I find this story disturbing on multiple levels. Obviously, the first is the idea that a business owned by Catholic bishops is selling smut. That’s like a Really Bad Thing—a Thing That Must Not Be.
I’m frustrated, though, by the way the story is written. It’s not clear enough about what the facts are.
For example, is Weltbild publishing smut or merely distributing smut? Either way, it’s horrible. But it’s worse if they’re publishing it. Publishing a book requires much more intensive involvement than simply carrying it. It’s one thing to say, “This is a filtering problem; our purchasing agent stocked stuff that shouldn’t have been stocked,” and it’s another thing to say, “This goes way beyond a failure on the part of our purchasing agents; our whole editorial process is compromised to the point that we have a porn-production subdivision operating under our auspices.”
So I’m not clear from The Independent’s article which of these horrors is the case. As best I can tell the firm both publishes books and distributes other publishers’ books, and I don’t know which is in play here. Bad reporting from The Independent.
Then there’s Mr. Muller’s criticism of the German bishops. If his allegations are true then things are much more serious. If the German bishops knowingly allowed their company to publish or distribute porn then there is a whole additional layer of culpability here.
But is that automatically the case? Not all criticisms of bishops groups are accurate, nor do they all tell the whole story. Just who got the 2008 document? Did any bishops see it and read it? Was it round-filed by the office staff? Was it written in such a way that it provided the “irrefutable proof” that Mr. Muller claims? Or was it done in a way that would guarantee problems. If as proof of selling books “promoting pornography, Satanism and magic” all they cited was some romance novels and Harry Potter then one might understand why prior action wasn’t taken.
On the other hand, if the problem is as blatant as Mr. Muller makes out then one would think that at least some German bishops were aware of what was being sold in their own retail outlets or on their own website. Surely some of the bishops occasionally wandered into a store or bought a book of of the Weltbild website and saw what was being offered for sale.
How about the 2009 attempt to sell Weltbild? The story says that this was “in an attempt to clear itself of potential embarrassment over the sale of porn,” but is that Mr. Muller’s interpretation of the event? How do we know that was the motive.
I can think of another and rather obvious motive: What is a bishop’s conference doing running non-religious book and media service to begin with? It would be one thing for them to have a Catholic publishing house or a chain of Catholic bookstores, but Weltbild apparently functions as a secular business, and I don’t see why a bishops conference should be the sole owner of a business that functions in that manner.
I can thus see why some German bishops might want to get rid of it for that reason alone.
Both before and after his time as pope, Papa Ratzinger has emphasized the need of the Church to eliminate or re-focus institutions it’s operating so that the Church is not spending its energies on running things that operate in a purely secular manner. There may have been Vatican influence on this point.
On the other hand, if Mr. Muller is right and it was an attempt to get shed of the thing because it was distributing porn then that strikes me as shameful. The thing to do would be shut down the porn aspect of the thing. (And then sell it.)
My problem is that The Independent’s story is so poorly written that I can’t tell what the actual facts are.
I certainly don’t trust the reporter’s representation of them. The British press has it in for the Catholic Church in spades and must be expected to slant, distort, or even make up things with an eye to harming the Church. (Notice how the very first sentence tells us this was done with “with the full assent of the country’s leading bishops” and we don’t get to the bishop’s statement apparently contradicting this until paragraph five?)
So I don’t know what to think. The situation appears bad, but just how bad I cannot tell because of the bad journalism of The Independent.
What do you think?
Comments
Post a Comment
This is frankly appalling on many levels, I hope to God that in His mercy He can help us Christians to stay awake and be ready! Right now it just seems we tend to be asleep at the wheel way too often.
Always good to skip “re-reporting” and go to the source, which is the article from Die Welt published a number of weeks ago. (Note that since it contains photos of some of the material being distributed by the bishops, the article is NSFW.) This article also includes reported excerpts from some of the bishops’ responses to the 70 page report, which, if true, were either quite dismissive or even downright rude.
If correct, the bottom line is that the German bishops do not wish to stop publishing and/or distributing materials that glorifies sex and violence (there’s more to it than just the “porn” angle) because to stop doing so, either through sale or quashing part of the business, would cost them money. Something about avoiding scandal in truth AND appearance is clearly lost here.
Not to make light of what’s clearly a very grave matter, one so horrible as to boggle the mind, still, the one thing I come away is, “Those German’s aren’t very subtle about their smut!” =/
I think it’s very problematic for the Church to own a secular publishing/distributing company. Even if it did not include obvious porn, there are plenty of other material that offer view points and subjects contrary to Church’s Teaching. I’m with Papa, get out of the secular business. We are supposed to spread the Word of God, not trash.
I think it is appalling that a leading catholic apologist, and one of our very best, by the way, should struggle for even a fraction of a second in the face of this *utterly unacceptable and appalling scandal*, with “just how bad it really is.
We have long, long since passed the point where nuanced examinations of whether the German bishops are actually publishing, or merely distributing, porno are relevant.
It is time for prophetic and holy wrath.
Have we lost the ability to rise up in indignation against such appalling scandal?
Jimy, if *you* can remain “nuanced” in the face of*this*, I fear we may have.
Like many faithful catholics, I am taken back by this problem that the German Bishops have exacted on the church and the faithful. The church should never be in “business” in a secular way. The fact that the Bishops purchased a publishing business to operate it for a profit is an outrage in and of itself. It is no wonder that evil has gained a foothold in the church when some Bishops are so greedy for monetary gain and act against the teachings of Jesus. There are many scriptures that come to mind as to why this is horribly wrong.
Where is Rome in this matter?
“The thing to do would be shut down the porn aspect of the thing. (And then sell it.)”
Wrong. Shut it down. Stop publishing. Don’t sell anything titles or copyrighted material. Sit on them so others won’t publish them. Sell the hardware alone and most importantly, sack the culprits
I am wondering who is in charge at the Vatican and why there has been no response to this scandal. Something very strange is going on.
Sell Weltbild? That would be immoral to sell a business with the means and will to sell smut to others. Rather, Weltbild should be closed down, economic losses be damned.
PS: it’s a shame that the Church agrees with the church tax.
You’d think that our Church would go Porn…simple close the business down! Sell it no…that would just make it easier for someone else to distribute porn. Financial loss…all I can think is that the business is somehow feeding the poor and saving souls…No? Shut it down! Loose money! Your job is God’s work not anything else. Confused? Time to retire.
Clarification is obviously needed, but this looks very bad. I work in publishing and distribution and I can tell you that “a filtering system failure” is not plausible given the titles and covers of these books. Further, my experience is that the books distributed but not published by a publishing organization are still subjected to high level scrutiny. That’s not a reasonable qualifier in my mind. It is deeply problematic for the bishops and the German Church to own a secular company in the first place and almost unbelievable that this went unchallenged by the—the Church? The Vatican? Someone??
It’s difficult to see how this can end well. The devil is having a good time with this. As a convert who recently struggled to explain the legitimate separated prayer rooms and the concept of syncretism following the pilgrimmage at Assisi, it’s a rough day even comtemplating what to say about this mess.
Sadly I can indeed imagine the worst case scenario… and it’s terrible I know… It’s bloody inexcusable how stupid many leaders in the Church have been… Rome should’ve expected it though! The Virgin Mary warned them decades ago that all this was going on! At Fatima, at Akita, heck the saints and previous Popes all wrote about the folly of being involved with the world. I’m personally bracing for the worst… and if it gets here I hope for their souls it was simply negligence on their part rather than knowledgable concealment.
I have been following this issue for several years. Just some clarification: Weltbild distributes all kinds of evil stuff. Strictly speaking, it is not pornography (according to the German legal definitions), but it is just like looking up “eurotika” on Amazon.
Weltbild is also 50%-co-owner of a publishing house (Droemer-Knaur) which actually publishes erotika books.
Finally, Weltbild also distributes tons of esoteric publications, black rock discs (like “Vobiscum Satanas”) and so on.
So, there is a real problem and no real solutions in sight. Mr. Muller’s article is accurate. The Bishops knew about this a long time ago.
Keep up your Faith and pray hard!
Go to the roots and read the online-articles of kath.net though they are in German they are investigative!
www.kath.net
This is disgusting. Doesn’t the Vatican have any control over the Bishops. Seems the Bishops are the ruination of the Catholic Church. First the pedaphilia and now this.I attended a church in W.Va. while my children were in school. I remember taking the “oath to the Legion of Decency”, which meant no x-rated movies, etc. for me and/or my children. Don’t these Bishops take an oath to God and the Church? Bah Humbug, I’m abt. ready to join the Lutherans.
Sue wrote, “Bah Humbug, I’m abt. ready to join the Lutherans.”
Sue, I don’t blame you for feeling outraged; all decent Catholics should be outraged.
But, Sue, think of Jesus on the evening He was arrested. Judas betrayed Him to His enemies. Most of the disciples either ran away, or followed at a safe distance. Having done the latter, Peter, instead of standing up for Him, denied Jesus three times.
Meanwhile, His mother Mary, John, and a few other women were present at the foot of the cross. And while the Apostles were hiding, Mary Magdalene risked arrest to go to Jesus’ tomb.
After all He has done for you and for me, doesn’t Jesus deserve to have followers who flat refuse to abandon Him, no matter what? And who flat refuse to follow the example of those who fall by the wayside, go off the rails, or fall flat on their faces?
I personally think He deserves that, and I want to do that for Him, no matter what any bishops do.
Please think about it.
Marion: It is not me abandoning Jesus, it is the Bishops and certain ones in the Vatican for allowing this to go on. I love the Catholic church just as I love my family…I was brought up in the Church, just as I was brought up in my family but I also believe that Jesus is in other churches also. Because Luther did not believe in paying for indulgences, does not mean he disavowed Jesus. I am a widow, living alone, who do you think I talk to everyday, all day, Jesus. When I cannot find something I lost and then find it, I thank Him…when I awaken in the morning I thank Him for another day, etc. etc.
My nuns in school set examples to us, my parents set examples to us, I EXPECT THE CATHOLIC BISHOPS AND THE VATICAN TO SET EXAMPLES TO US. That is their duty/vows—-to follow in Jesus shoes and set example as Jesus did.
Sue,
If you expect the Lutheran clergy to be immaculate, you’re in for a huge disappointment.
And you cannot forget that Jesus and the Church that He founded, the Roman Catholic Church, are one.
If a 70 page book was given to the Bishops as proof of the disgusting sale of porn that is an was coming from a Catholic owned publishing house was not proof enough than it was up to those Bishops to do a full investigation. Shame to each and every one of those Bishops who go up on a pulpit every day and preach God’ word and then allow this to take place. They no longer have any respect or are taken seriously from their flock. These hypocrites should be defrocked! What they are now saying to the people is do as I say not as I do. No wonder so many young people have turned their back from their faith. These so called leaders are a mockery to our Church. I am disgusted that the offer was not deemed good enough by the Bishops. I’m sorry but when did money become their idols? Someone is looking at this as a profit maker and that is why it continues. Bishops are suppose to be their to guide the people closer to God they are not there to make profits and who is the beneficiary to these profits????I am receiving a lot of hate mail for defending my faith in an article about our dear Padre Pio at the Huffinton Post and then I read this!!!!!!!!
@Laureen: You are right! The Catholic church has closed down some of their hospitals because they will not do abortions, then why is it so hard to close down a publication that they own?
The most likely explanation is that this company was one of many bundled together into an investment portfolio similar to a 401K and tasked with maximizing a return on the investment with the funds generated being used to pay for Church operations, electric bills, maintenance of buildings etc. The “literal” truth contained in the old proverb “the devil is in the details” is now manifest and plain for all to see.
Clearly there was a horrible disconnect in that the German Church’s apparatchik(s) tasked with overseeing these investments lacked basic moral sense and the Bishops (because the captain is ultimately responsible) are left holding this bag of sour owl doo doo’s.
The “lesson learned” is that the apparatchiks are the real pilots of Church bureaucracies on both sides of the pond; after all our American Bishops were snookered into authorizing over $7,000,000 to ACORN.
At it’s root this scandal happened because of the peculiar nature of Church finance in Germany ... they are supported by taxes not contributions ... an artifact of that great failure of all Catholics some 500 years ago called the Reformation. The German Bishops clearly had a complete trust in the judgement of their apparatchiks who sadly let them down. There is absolutely no doubt whatsoever in my mind that no single Bishop acting on his own would countenance the publishing of this kind of trash.
The real test of the health of the German Church will be how quickly they clean up this mess and insure that those directing German Church investments truly represent the “faithful servant” doing the best they are capable of in a moral and responsible way while they wait in faith and hope for the Lord knowing that any moral lapse will be magnified and trumpeted by a hostile secular press.
Marion
Your theology needs updating
Jesus came to show us that as humans we are called to be Christ
We are not called to follow Jesus - we are called to be Christ in the world
Do you think Christ would approve of the crimes that the Church has inflicted upon the world - in the name of God,?
Why is anyone surprised? When put next to some of the other atrocious activities that have been proven to have been committed by priests, this is small potatoes. What it does, however, is add to the momentum for someone at the top to put a stop to all this idiocy of greed and lust before a disgusted populace walk away forever.
“My problem is that The Independent’s story is so poorly written that I can’t tell what the actual facts are.
I certainly don’t trust the reporter’s representation of them.”
My opinion: If you don’t trust the reporter’s representation, then why did you report on that story and spread it even further? Your title leaves the impression that most of what The Independent reported must be true… Maybe you could have waited to find out more before publishing anything on this.
I have a Argentinian neighbor who told me of the wrongs the Catholic Church did in Argentina, and how it affected her family, who had to go in hiding at one time. [she has stated how she “hates” the CC] She now belongs to a Baptist church that has no hierarchy at all, just their Minister and they read the Bible and follow it the best they can. I sometimes feel how refreshing it would be to belong to a little church like this. The hierarchy of the Catholic Church needs a “cleansing”. Too much corruption up there which flows down to each of the people’s individual churches. Now that the pedophelia problem is being addressed [“cleaned-out”], next they need to do the same with the Catholic Universities and now the Publications. The Church should get out of the money business. Exactly what Jesus said when he chased the money men out of the Temple. Remember the CC has many clergy-lawyers, it is not as if these people were innocent of what is going on.
@Augustine: So, maybe the Lutheran Church is just as bad, okay then I guess I will just sit in my house and read my Bible. @Marion:You know the Baptists say that Jesus founded their Church too. No, Marion, I have no desire to leave my Church at the age of 85, but I am very discouraged, disillusioned, angry. My faith is in Jesus, son of God, but I pray for the Church, which is suppose to be infallible. All I can say is shame on the Bishops and all who run the Church.
We need to support National Catholic Register with prayers, fasting, charity and financial support. Once again thank you Jesus for all who bring us your truth. What a wonderful God we have what a wonderful Church he gives us.
REVNC
I hope they are also selling “Petrus Romanus: The Final Pope is Here” (where I learned about Weltbild) and “EXO-VATICANA Petrus Romanus, Project L.U.C.I.F.E.R., and the Vatican’s Astonishing Plan for the Arrival of an Alien Savior” (both books by Tom Horn and Cris Putnam). These are bestsellers and I’m sure will bring in a lot of income for the Church.
Post a Comment
By submitting this form, you give The National Catholic Register permission to publish this comment. Comments will be published at our discretion, and may be edited for clarity and length. For best formatting, please limit your response to one paragraph and don't hit "enter" to force line breaks.