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Official Catholic Church Women's Group Involved in Legal Prostitution Scheme in Germany

By John-Henry Westen

COLOGNE, May 4, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Germany's legal prostitution scheme, introduced by the Socialist-Green government in 2001, has generated new controversy as the World Cup is about to begin. German authorities are readying for a boom in the sex trade with the construction of mega-brothels and sex-huts or "performance boxes" as they are called. (coverage: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/may/06050108.html)

Even stranger than the fact that German governmental authorities are, through taxation, profiting from the wiles of prostitution, is the fact that the Catholic Church in Germany is involved in the legal prostitution scheme.  The city of Cologne funds the project with some 480,000 Euros per year.

The "Sozialdienst katholischer Frauen" (SkF) [Catholic Women's Welfare Service] is, according to its website, "a women's association in the Catholic Church (in Germany) . . .  supporting women on the outskirts of society who suffer from discrimination and the feeling of being excluded." (http://www.skf-zentrale.de/html/skf_englisch.html)

SKF in Cologne, in conjunction with the police and the health department spent three years coming up with the plan for a fenced off compound on the city outskirts where prostitutes can ply their trade "safely". 

The area allows those wishing to purchase sexual favours to drive into garage-type structures called "performance boxes" where prostitutes await them. 

The Catholic Women's group's Sabine Reichert explained in an interview with Deutsche Welle last year, "Every hut is fitted so that the driver has to get out on the side nearest to the wall, and the prostitute has the side with an exit into the street in case she has to get away in an emergency. There are red alarm buttons in every box that can be pressed."

The participation of the Catholic Women's group in the prostitution scheme is at odds with Catholic teaching.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church calls prostitution "a social scourge" and notes that "it is always gravely sinful to engage in prostitution."  Moreover, in numerous addresses, the late Pope John Paul II decried prostitution.  In September 2004, speaking to the bishops of New Zealand, Pope John Paul specifically condemned the facilitation of prostitution.  He pointed to "the distortion of reason by particular interest groups and exaggerated individualism" which leads to "the tragic consequences of . . .  the facilitation of abortion and prostitution." (http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/sep/04091304.html)

New Zealand, had legalized prostitution, that year.  And the results of the law decried by the Pope have been disastrous.  Only last month the New Zealand press reported the comments of Auckland barrister David Garrett who has slammed the Prostitution Reform Act.  Since the introduction of the new law which legalized prostitution for those over 18, he contends, there have been an "explosion" of teenage prostitutes police were unable to control.

Calls and emails yesterday and today to the SKF and their governing Bishop in Germany, Paderborn Auxiliary Bishop Manfred Grothe, were not returned by press time. 

The situation is reminiscent of a battle some German bishops had with Pope John Paul II over abortion counselling.  For years the Pope requested that the German bishops insist that certificates they were giving for counselling of women in crisis pregnancies could not be used as a permission slip for abortion, as was the practice in Germany.  However, the government insisted that women obtain counselling certificates prior to obtaining abortions and the Bishops argued that being involved in that government funded counselling program was beneficial as it allowed some women to turn away from abortion.

However, the scandal associated with the Church's counselling certificates being so closely associated to abortion was intolerable for the Church which regards abortion as murder of the innocent.  The Vatican had to order some German bishops out of the business.  In 2000, then Cardinal Ratzinger, who at the time headed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, wrote the bishops saying, "whoever continues to operate in the system of counseling centers is placed in open opposition to the Pope."

One bishop continued to offer the controversial counselling service until the Pope personally intervened, stripping the bishop of his authority. (coverage: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2002/mar/02031104.html )

To contact Bishop Manfred Grothe with concerns:
Official Web Site: http://www.erzbistum-paderborn.de/  
Mailing Address: Domplatz 3, D-33098 Paderborn, Bundesrepublik Deutschland
Telephone: (05251)1250
Fax: 12.54.70

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