Catholic Church owns German porn company

[Delta4Embassy]

Wait what? My initial reaction looking for other things

Publisher Owned by Catholic Church Reportedly Selling Porn Novels Fox News

"

A publishing house owned by the Catholic Church has been selling thousands of pornographic novels, The Independent reports.

The news, reportedly first revealed in the publishing-industry newsletter Buchreport, relates to Weltbild, Germany’s largest bookseller after Amazon and wholly owned by the Catholic Church.

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Buchreport revealed that Weltbild's massive assortment of titles available to customers online includes some 2,500 "erotic" books with lewd titles. The publisher's website also pictures the titles' lascivious dust jackets that feature color photographs of scantily clad women in high heels and erotic underwear, according to the newspaper.

On Friday, 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 the future.

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.

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. 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.

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.

Click for more on this story from The Independent"

 

[Delta4Embassy]

My bigger concern here isn't what they're selling so much as why a religious institution can own a for-profit company yet remain tax-exempt.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Catholic Church owns German porn company

 

[Katzndogz]

My bigger concern here isn't what they're selling so much as why a religious institution can own a for-profit company yet remain tax-exempt.

All taxes on income generated by companies owed by religious institutions are paid just like anyone else. Did you think that commercial enterprise owned by a church was as tax exempt as the money earned by the church itself?

 

[shart_attack]

Porn is a socially relative term.

What passed for pornography in the literary world of the Middle Ages, for example, would not be called such today.

No news here. Move on.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Porn is a socially relative term.

What passed for pornography in the literary world of the Middle Ages, for example, would not be called such today.

No news here. Move on.

You're right, this is totally subjective as to what constitutes 'porn.'

"Although it has been against the Catholic Church teachings, some 2,500 erotic books are listed on the online catalogue of Weltbild, these include the Blue Panther Books with titles: "Schlampen-Internat" (Sluts' Boarding School). "Vögelbar" (F-kable), and "Anwaltshure" (Lawyer's Whore).

Worldcrunch.com also points out the Catholic Church's ownership (50% equity) in another publishing company called Droemer Knaur, which has its own line-up of erotic materials such as "Sag Luder zu mir!" (Call Me Slut!),"Nimm mich hier und nimm mich jetzt!" (Take Me Here, Take Me Now!)."
Catholic Church Owns Billion-Dollar German Media Firm Selling Porn - International Business Times

 

[OZman]

This is nothing new, making money is the only goal.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

You're right, this is totally subjective as to what constitutes 'porn.'

"Although it has been against the Catholic Church teachings, some 2,500 erotic books are listed on the online catalogue of Weltbild, these include the Blue Panther Books with titles: "Schlampen-Internat" (Sluts' Boarding School). "Vögelbar" (F-kable), and "Anwaltshure" (Lawyer's Whore).

Worldcrunch.com also points out the Catholic Church's ownership (50% equity) in another publishing company called Droemer Knaur, which has its own line-up of erotic materials such as "Sag Luder zu mir!" (Call Me Slut!),"Nimm mich hier und nimm mich jetzt!" (Take Me Here, Take Me Now!)."
Catholic Church Owns Billion-Dollar German Media Firm Selling Porn - International Business Times

Puts the recent religious business opting out of birth control debate in a whole new light doesn't it? ...So you can opt out of birth control for your employees but what if they wanna buy some sex toys or that kind of thing? Do you any longer really have any authority to tell them 'no?'

 

[MDiver]

Finally, the Catholic church is doing something positive.