Jul 11, 2012 / 15:10 pm
A German magazine must stop publishing its latest issue, which depicts Pope Benedict XVI in a urine- and feces-stained cassock, a district court in Hamburg ruled on June 10.
The German Bishops' Conference, which took legal action against "Titanic" magazine with the permission of the Vatican's Secretary of State, welcomed the decision. Conference spokesman Matthias Kopp said the image "oversteps every measure of decency."
On the front cover of its July issue, Titanic mocked the Pope, and the recent "Vatileaks" scandal involving security breaches and confidential documents, with an image that showed him wearing urine-stained clothing. The headline read: "Hallelujah in the Vatican: The leak has been found!"
The image on the back cover had been altered to show a brown stain on the back of his traditional white cassock, with the caption reading: "Another leak is found!"