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| Here's one of Weltbild's offerings. I imagine the German Bishops can take some solace in the fact it's not a gay porn offering. I don't know about the polyamory thing though |
When this story first came to my attention I really had a hard time computing it. Here in the US the Bishop Finn case was front page news and as we all know, porn features prominently in this case, and yet in Germany, Finn's fellow bishops owned a book company that was selling porn, lots of porn. Say what? I sometimes have a very difficult time computing the insanity inherent in our hierarchy. It's no wonder Finn's attorneys are contemplating using a freedom of speech defense. Now however, things have changed in Germany and partly due to Pope Benedict. From the South African Sunday Times:
Catholic Church sells porn book seller
Sapa-dpa | 22 November, 2011 14:27The Catholic church in Germany is to sell Weltbild, its bookselling arm, after the unit admitted last month to publishing pornographic novels, the company says.
Weltbild is one of the Germany's main book enterprises, with annual sales of 1.6 billion euros (2.1 billion dollars) and a workforce of 6,400. Its interests include general publishing, a main national bookshop chain and book clubs.Catholic leaders were outraged that the profitable company's book range included steamy pulp novels with titles like "Boarding School for Sluts" and "The Lawyer's Whore" and advice on how to practice esoteric superstitions that are condemned by Catholic doctrine.
Germany's 27 bishops met this week to press the 12 bishops who co-own Weltbild to end the investment after Weltbild had defended its commercial policy of publishing whatever books meet market demand.
Weltbild, based in the southern city of Augsburg, said it welcomed the decision to seek new ownership "without delay."
Pope Benedict XIV, who urged German bishops in September to get rid of worldly wealth, appeared to influence the debate, telling Catholics they should be "energetically opposing the distribution of erotic and pornographic material."
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The Weltbild story has been much bigger in Europe than it has in the States. It turns out lay activists had been pressing the case for ditching Weltbild over it's porn sales for quite some time. They almost accomplished it in 2008 but the twelve bishops whose dioceses solely own Weltbild didn't get an offer for the company that met their demands. I suspect price will be less of an issue this time around.
What's even more jaw dropping are these excuses for all that porn being missed by those German bishops. This is from a Tablet article:
"But as protests from conservative Catholic groups grew, and more dubious titles on www.weltbild.de were found and their names published, the German bishops admitted that a “filtering failure” had allowed dubious titles to stray into Weltbild’s lists. Weltbild’s management has meanwhile threatened to sue certain far-right online networks for slander for publishing headlines such as “Catholic Church earns a fortune with porn”.
The Catholic Church bought Weltbild more than 30 years ago. In 1998 it merged with five other publishing houses. In 2008, at the height of its success, the German bishops considered selling the concern. The Weltbild group’s chairman, Carel Halff, said then that the size of the company had “gone beyond the bishops’ original concept”. At that time Weltbild had 7,400 employees and a turnover of €1.94bn, while one of its subsidiaries, www.buecher.de, listed 4,364 erotic titles. Criticism from conservative Catholics regarding these titles is said to have persuaded the bishops to try to sell. But their efforts came to nothing, apparently, because they were not offered the sum they were hoping for."
Why is it I think the operative number was 1.4 billion euros, and not the 4,364 erotic titles? Perhaps what ever those filters were filtering they must not have been programmed to flag titles that made money and that's why 4,364 dubious titles 'strayed' into Weltbild's list. No wonder the 'do as I say not as I do' crowd are winding up with a lot of egg on their faces. It was just too hard for those twelve bishops to yank their little red hands out of that particular cookie jar.
If I recall correctly, there was a flap some years ago when the Vatican found it owned stock in Syntex or Searle, which manufactured an oral contraceptive, so this isn't the first time it's happened.
ReplyDeleteI still think this is a little different. Weltbild was a solely owned property of these dioceses. This isn't a case of we own this subsidiarity of this company which owns some stock in Searle.
ReplyDeleteEven with birth control they could have made the argument that hormonal forms are used for a number of other things besides birth control--progesterone is used to treat some pedophiles for instance--but I don't know what kind of secondary justification they could use for porn.
In fairness, they thought Weltbild only sold child porn.
ReplyDeleteI suppose I should not judge a book by the cover. It is possible that the ethical slut really is about ethics. Situational, relativist, non-Catholic ethics to be sure, but it suggests that the contents aren't just prurient porn.
ReplyDeleteA quick search shows Dossie Easton is an American psychotherapist, and relationship counselor who is licensed as a Marriage and Family Therapist in the state of California. She works within sexual minority communities.
I don't suppose Weltbild sought the "Nihil Obstat" designation. The Bishops' "Imprimatur" seems more implied than stated.
p2p
p2p I could have chosen other titles, but I like to delude myself into thinking this is more of a family blog.
ReplyDeleteAs to this particular book of ethics receiving an imprimatur, I vaguely remember some comment or other from Benedict about condoms another sexual ethical issue. So although it's doubtful, it is conceivable :)
I liked your choice of book, Colleen. Brilliant remark, that on sexual issues some doubtful positions are conceivable.
ReplyDeletep2p
I suppose if one is going to use things like imprimaturs, one should not attempt to make a living publishing books! This whole incident reeks with the way the Vatican and Church in general invest and earn money. There is a chinese saying that the ethics of the business man is last in line when we consider teacher, doctors, lawyers, monks etc. This presses the question, what are the ethics of Bishops? Do they have the ethics of monks or business?
ReplyDeleteI think a little reading about the history of the Vatican Bank, its investments and the people who have made those investments since the two concordats with fascist dictators becomes very revealing as to a major part of hypocritical ethics that bring the infallible decrees of untenable moral pronouncements about clericalism, women, sex in general, science, homosexuals, rituals, and control over the Blessed Sacrament.
The implosion of Episcopal leadership seems as much about financial hypocrisy as it is about teaching of these other misapplications of ethics. We have a leadership out of touch with reality who omnipotently profess moral dogma. They are sick borderline personalities with much antisocial behavior. Their form of dogmatism has nothing to do with spirituality. No wonder many people feel spiritual but not religious and fall away from Roman Catholicism. It seems secularism is more likely to lead to better ethical systems than does (religious) dogmatism.
I think that the peoples of Europe have already figured this out and now we have some leadership coming from Austria and Ireland that endangers the whole unholy, authoritarian leadership of the RCC. The implosion of the RCC leadership does have its fruits. Who will pick up the pieces and how will they be reorganized? Time will tell. dennis
Dennis, talk about synchronicity. You were writing this as I was writing today's main post. This line would fit in perfectly:
ReplyDelete"Their form of dogmatism has nothing to do with spirituality. No wonder many people feel spiritual but not religious and fall away from Roman Catholicism. It seems secularism is more likely to lead to better ethical systems than does (religious) dogmatism."
I suppose both of us know how much fear plays into the creation of borderline sociopathic personalities. And yes, I too have frequently though too many of our bishops fit this pattern. Starting with the one currently on the Chair of Peter.
I started reading Catholic blogs when the Legionaries of Christ appeared in our little parish.
ReplyDeleteWithout a doubt I feel dirty reading Catholic blogs, this one and a few others excepted.
The abuse, the cover-ups, the clutching of pearls, and the defense of the indefensible within the Church is far more soul destroying than any exposure I have ever had to secular "pornography".
p2p
Perhaps that's because our spirit transcends our bodies. Our spirit is that which makes us whole with in our bodies. Bodies are a part of our holistic good when we don't corrupt them with our limited understanding of spirit. Notice I'm not using the world 'soul'.
ReplyDelete