Catholic cartoon controversy
The Tablet (via) reports that bishops and other leading Catholics in Germany are protesting against MTV’s plans to show Popetown in the German-speaking countries on 3rd May.
After finding full-page advertisements for the cartroon series in several German TV magazines the bishops’ conference announced that the advertisements were an “affront to all German Christians” as they “mocked the central message of Christian belief”, the central message of Christian belief being that the Pope does not ride a pogo stick.
Cardinal Friedrich Wetter, Archbishop of Munich, accused MTV of deliberately choosing Holy Week to show the advertisements. “It is obvious, in view of the recent uproar over the Danish Muhammad caricatures, that the time has come to treat people’s religious beliefs and symbols with greater sensitivity in public,” he said.
Surely the opposite should be the case, I would have thought.
But the poor dears are taking action. The archdiocese of Munich has sent MTV an ultimatum through a lawyer, which obliged the station to decide whether to go ahead with the broadcast or face legal proceedings and a member of the conservative CSU has also lodged a complaint against the station.
The Bavarian leader, Edmund Stoiber, told the German daily Münchner Merkur that he intended to try and change Germany’s blasphemy laws “in order to protect people’s religious feelings”. Under German law blasphemy is punishable only if it disturbs the public peace. Mr Stoiber said he hoped to get a new law passed by the summer that would make mocking religious symbols a crime and added that he had already discussed the matter with the President of the German bishops’ conference, Cardinal Karl Lehmann, and the leader of the Lutheran Church in Bavaria.
Jesus! What a stupid idea.
Saturday 29 Apr 2006 | Paul | Germany
They don’t get it, do they? The more they bleat about this, the more people will strive to see Popetown, just as has happend with the Danish toons: everyone and his/her uncle have now see those toons who might not have done had there not been such a childish protest.
This is what always amazes me. Groups like this jump up and down and hand MTV far more publicity that they would ever have paid for if the whole thing had just been ignored.
Stoiber’s remarks about extending the blashemy laws are a bit worrying, though.