Pope sues satirical magazine: "Titanic" is sold without a cover

The court in Hamburg temporarily banned the new issue of the German satirical magazine "Titanic" because the Vatican filed a lawsuit against the publication, on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI.

The lawsuit was filed because of the offensive portrayal of the head of the Catholic Church.

It is a photo-montage on the cover and last page of the magazine, where under the headline "Hallelujah in the Vatican - the leak was discovered!" there is a photo-montage of Pope Benedict XVI with a large yellow stain under his belt, and on the last page the pope has a brown stain in the same place.

"Titanic" editor Leo Fischer said the pope had misunderstood the cover and that the picture only showed him spilling a glass of "fanta" on himself while celebrating the resolution of the Vatilix affair.

In this way, the magazine mocks the situation that has recently shaken the Vatican due to the publication of confidential information related to the Vatican Bank.

"'Titanic' has exceeded the measure of good taste. The front and back pages are illegal because they threaten the human rights of the Pope," said the spokesman of the German bishops' conference, Matthias Kopp.

Kopp confirmed that Archbishop Angelo Becciu, the Vatican's deputy for general affairs, contacted a law firm in Bonn, which filed a lawsuit and requested an immediate ban on the paper.

The regional court in Hamburg immediately ordered a ban on the sale of the magazine's July issue.

The editor-in-chief of the magazine, Leo Fischer, said that the pope had misunderstood the cover and that the picture only showed him spilling a glass of juice on himself while celebrating the resolution of the "Vatilix" affair.

"The pope is known to love a 'boy,'" Fischer said.

If the distribution of the paper with the disputed front page had not been suspended, the magazine would have been threatened with a fine of 250.000 euros.

Others believe that the comparison of Muhammad with the Pope is more than exaggerated and that he, like any public figure, can hardly avoid such jokes at his expense and that it has nothing to do with religious feelings.

So the new "Titanic" is now sold without the front and last pages, and those who have already bought that magazine can boast that they have a rarity.

German journalists, who are otherwise in agreement, have divided opinions on this piranha.

Some object to "Titanic" that in this case the joke is still too tasteless and that, when journalists are already cautious when mentioning Muhammad, remembering the stormy reactions in the Islamic world after the caricatures in a Danish newspaper, then the Pope and Catholics deserve the same measure of caution.

Others believe that the comparison of Muhammad with the "German" Pope Jozef Ratzinger is more than exaggerated and that he, like any public figure, can hardly avoid such jokes at his expense and that it has nothing to do with Catholicism and religious feelings.

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