COLOGNE (GERMANY)
Catholic News Agency - EWTN [Denver CO]
February 28, 2025
By Madalaine Elhabbal
The Archdiocese of Cologne, Germany, has issued a statement of condemnation after a carnival float associating Jesus with the sex abuse crisis was premiered at a parade in the city.
The float featured a cartoon of a young boy wearing altar server clothes standing outside a confessional. An arm sticking out from the curtain beckons the boy, who pulls away, while a sign outside the confessional reads, “Jesus Loves You.”
In a statement addressed to the festival committee, Frank Hüppelshäuser, head of office at the archdiocese, condemned the float as “tasteless,” pointing out that its imagery “directly associates Jesus, the Son of God, with abuse.”
“It is suggested that Jesus himself is sitting in the confessional and wants to pull the altar boy into it with a wave of his hand; at the very least, Jesus is being instrumentalized here,” he continued. “If one assumes that the Son of God is partly responsible for the terrible acts of abuse that have also and especially occurred in the Catholic Church, a line has been crossed that cannot be justified for any reason in the world.”
Madalaine Elhabbal is a staff reporter for Catholic News Agency based at EWTN’s Washington, D.C., bureau. She has been published by CatholicVote and has also worked as foreign language assistant in France. She is a graduate of Benedictine College.
