German bishops declare war

D: Bischöfe gegen „kreuz.net“:

The German Bishops' Conference has announced it will fight with vigour "kreuz.net", the internet portal. The German Office for Constitutional Protection has classified the site as anti-constitutional. As the spokesman of the Bishops' Conference, Matthias Kopp, says in an interview with Cologne Cathedral Radio:

"This site has nothing to do with the Catholic Church. Here the concept of Catholic is abused, people are abused, bishops are insulted . This latently anti-Semitic website has no right to exist in my eyes! If now the Office for Constitutional Protection is concerned with it and a few other legal means are being sought, this is a good development. The aim must be that this site will be removed as soon as possible from the net."

The Federal Office for Constitutional Protection rated "kreuz.net" as partly anti-semitic and anti-Muslim. President Heinz Fromm announced in a letter published on Thursday that the site will continue to be "monitored even more intensely." According to Fromm, kreuz.net was distinguished "by homophobic, anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic statements", which partly showed an "extremely aggressive style." Some contributions go beyond the basic right of freedom of expression, potentially providing evidence for work against the fundamental order of a free democracy and exceeding "the bounds of criminality."

(Cathcon - To Volker Becker, a Green member of the German Parliament- in response to a letter from Herr Becker.   On his website "Good, that the Office for Constitutional Protection knows about kreuz.net . The filth of this page from the sympathizers of the SSPX is an insult to every faithful Catholic. The fact that a board member of the so-called citizens' movement PRO Cologne (an anti-mosque building movement in Cologne- who have written a furious rebuttal)  has written on kreuz.net which is  anti-Semitic hate site shows that PRO is not about  being pro-Israel, but has as a programme baiting of minorities. Whether it is a question of hatred of Islam, anti-Semitism or homophobia - PRO Cologne disguises itself, but if you get the scrape away the paint  the brown colour (Germans call Nazis browns after the Brown Shirts of Hitler)  of the NPD (the contemporary far-right grouping) come to the fore."   - The Greens and traditionalist Catholics clash in almost every European country- the suspicion being that this is the way that they deal with their own propensities to intolerance by accusing others of it.)

"Kreuz.net" claims in its publisher's imprint, to be run by Catholics, who are in high office in the service of the Church. It is also stated that information provided anonymously will be accepted and that, as a matter of honour, the anonymity of informants will be protected.

Matthias Kopp said:

"The anonymity shows the cowardice of the publisher that drains their reading matter down onto the site. I hope and expect that no employees in church service support this site, or will even supply it with information. If this were true but that would be a monstrosity, because what "kreuz.net" is doing here has nothing to do with the Catholic Church. They say, "News from the Catholic Church." We have the problem that the term "catholic" is not treated with respect here and the term "catholic" abused."

The Office for Constitutional Protection want to monitor the website intensively, but this is necessarily limited, because the server this page is registered abroad. Does the Catholic Church have any other ways to intervene in the matter?

"We are working on options. I do not want not to comment in more detail. One simply has to examine where the server is located, which is probably a fake. It is obvious where most page views of "kreuz.net" come from - that's not in fact abroad, nor big cities but very specific places in Germany - and perhaps you can learn more about the location of the actual operator."

Cathcon- prior to the Second Vatican Council, the Church expected the state to promote the Catholic Faith in each nation to the exclusion of other creeds. The actions of the Catholic Bishops seem to be rather inconsistent with the Council's Declaration on Religious Freedom. And irony of ironies, the Radio Vatican newsletter reports the Church's support for freedom in Cuba immediately above this article.  kreuz.net have also written  a vigorous response.