Pissing match: Vatican sues over satirical magazine cover

In a move surely calculated to point out that nobody takes the Pope more seriously than he himself does, the Vatican has taken a satirical magazine to court over images of the Pope soiling himself with the headline, “The leak is found!”

Der Spiegel reports that German magazine Titanic’s July cover (below) was so offensive to the Vatican that they went to court and obtained a temporary injunction against the magazine, claiming that the front and rear covers are illegal and “harm [Benedict's] legal rights”.

A Hamburg judge agreed, ordering Titanic not to continue to distribute the image or post it on the Internet.

That’d be this image here:

The Pope is so well-respected, they gave him the front and rear covers. Click to embiggen, and right-click to download and to NOT share.

Whatever you do, do not share that image on the Internet. We don’t want it to get any more exposure than it already has.

Der Spiegel reports:

In the current cover, Pope Benedict appears in a religious cassock that is soiled yellow below the waist. Above the picture appears the headline “Hallelujah in the Vatican: The leak has been found!” On the back cover of the issue, the pope appears from behind and the stains are brown rather than yellow.

…

Titanic editor-in-chief Leo Fischer refutes the claims that the pictures damage the Pope’s personal rights. “Benedict must have misunderstood,” says Fischer. The title, he says, merely shows a pope that had spilled his drink when celebrating with a glass of soda after the Vatileaks scandal was solved, he says. “Everyone knows that the Pope is a big fan of Fanta,” says Fischer.

Apparently, the Pope then sat on his chocolate ice cream in his distracted state.

Fischer noted that satire is usually given quite a bit of leeway in Germany, and is prepared for a long legal battle . . . sure to keep the image in the news for months to come.

One would think, especially after “Everybody Draw Muhammad Day“, that public figures would know better than to sue to prevent distribution of an image, or a book, or a film. It just brings greater exposure to the offending media.

Could that be the Vatican’s intent? To show the world how victimized Benedict is? Or maybe to deflect attention from the “Vatileaks” scandal?

Update:

Terry Sanderson, President of the (UK) National Secular Society, says: “It is almost unbelievable that a court in a developed Western nation should think it legitimate to go along with the Vatican’s authoritarian tendencies and suppress a rather mild satire like this.

“The Vatican comes over once again as a humourless, controlling dictatorship that will brook no criticism. This crazy case will simply draw ever more attention to the things it is trying to cover up. The Pope seems to think that we are still living in the 15th century when deference to his office was expected – whatever outrage was committed.

“So, in the cause of free speech, and at the risk of being burned at the stake, we are publishing the photo here and ask you to read this article about the Vatileaks scandal that the Holy See would rather you didn’t know about.”

Read all about the Vatileaks scandal HERE.

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