The Church and Pornography in Germany

[sulkow82]

HELP!
I’m defending the Catholic Church in an online debate. The person I’m debating has cited a publishing company (not the name, but the fact that one exists) in Germany which has been promoting pornography there (the person I’m debating lives in Germany). The claim is that several Diocese in Germany hold all of the stock and thus own the company. She is accusing the Church of hypocrisy on the issue of pornography Could someone help supply me with more complete information for my debate. Thanks in advance,

 

[InigoMontoya]

If the company is listed on the German Stock Market, you should be able to pull up their regulatory filings and see who the largest stock owners are. Just remember that the DAX and other exchanges aren’t under the SEC, so the filing names and coverage will be different.

 

[PJD1987]

Here’s an article that might give you more information about this scandal:

ncregister.com/blog/jimmy-akin/german-bishops-publish-porn

I think its important to keep in mind that the Church itself is made up of sinners and hypocrites, even bishops, and Cardinals and Popes. It is a shameful thing that happened, just like other scandals that have rocked the Church before. However, it does not mean that the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church itself is in error, it’s easy for many anti-Catholics and enemies of the Church and Truth to conflate the two issues.

Hope this is helpful.

God bless.

-Paul

P.S. Also, the Bishops obviously sold the stock in the company after this came to light.

Here is another link to a thread started when this happened in November of 2011…

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=612431&page=2

 

[PaulfromIowa]

Some bishops and some priests commit various sins. There is no denying this. We must remember that bishops and priests are still human men and can still fall just as the rest of us. Our faith, however, is in God, not men.

It is worth noting that even though there are sinful bishops, and even sinful popes in the past; that the Church, guided by the Holy Spirit has continued to teach the Truth.

 

[DexUK]

I don’t know the truth of the matter regarding this German publishing business, but it shouldn’t be relevant to the argument.

Whatever the failings are of the individuals concerned in managing this possible scandal, it doesn’t mean that the Church is wrong as a ‘religious body’, nor does it affect the deposit of faith. What it means is that some people who are (or purport to be) members of the Church made some very bad decisions about how this publishing business was run. The very fact that it is brought up in an argument at all proves that the Church’s message on morality has taken root, even if some of its adherents may have demonstrably failed to live by it.

In any case, it is highly unlikely that the Bishops of the Church themselves were directly involved in the running of the company - they probably only saw the balance sheets at the end of the year. Clerics are not, by and large, business people - their heads are usually elsewhere, and rightly so - and that responsibility was almost certainly devolved to a hired-in executive who should shoulder the lion’s share of the blame for this scandal.