Calling up porn sites from the office computer is already tricky under normal circumstances. But if this also happens in Cardinal Woelki’s Archdiocese, it has another dimension.
According to a report in the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger”, clerics and other employees of the Archdiocese of Cologne have shown a keen interest in porn sites. The newspaper reported that there had been “mass attempts to access porn websites from the service computers of the Archdiocese of Cologne”.
Among the “dozens of employees” who were interested in these pages were “high-ranking clerics”. Accordingly, there is a list from the Archdiocese with more than 1000 access attempts.
The Archdiocese of Cologne confirmed the existence of the list and announced that it was the result of a routine check by the IT service provider. The Archdiocese regularly checks whether the firewalls are able to ward off attempts to access risky sites with depictions of violence, pornography or drugs. However, the usage behavior of individuals should not be controlled. The documented access attempts were successfully prevented by the automatic web content filter. “Based on the routine check, there were no indications of criminally relevant behavior,” said the archdiocese.
A shadow falls on the work
Vicar General Guido Assmann” emphasized: “We have a large number of committed and reliable employees in the church sector and it hurts me a lot when the behavior of individuals casts a shadow over their work.”
A spokeswoman for the Cologne public prosecutor’s office said on request that the list from the archdiocese was in front of the authority and was being checked. So far, however, there has been neither the initial suspicion of a criminal offense nor an investigation. Visiting porn sites is only punishable if, for example, minors are seen engaging in sexual acts. In June, the Cologne public prosecutor’s office took action against an employee of the Archdiocese who was suspected of possessing child pornography. He no longer works in the Vicariate General, the central administration of the diocese.
According to Catholic teaching, consumption of pornography is a sin. The “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger” even quoted Pope Francis as saying: “The devil comes from there.” The head of the Archdiocese of Cologne, Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, had emerged as the most prominent critic of a renewal of the church during the recently completed synodal path reform process. The synodal path had sought, among other things, a relaxation of the obligatory celibacy for priests (celibacy) and a liberalization of Catholic sexual morality.
Source: Stern
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