The 104th German Catholic Congress (Katholikentag) in Würzburg, organized by the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), has approved a booth for the “Ecumenical Working Group BDSM and Christianity” while rejecting three pro-life panel proposals on surrogacy, abortion, and end-of-life care. Press head Cosima Jagow-Duda told CNA Deutsch that the BDSM group’s guidelines contain “no contradiction with the Catechism.” The congress motto, “Have Courage, Stand Up!” rings hollow when the courage to defend the sanctity of human life and the integrity of Christian chastity is conspicuously absent. This is not merely an administrative decision; it is a public revelation of the doctrinal bankruptcy and moral inversion that defines the post-conciliar German “Church”—an institution that welcomes advocates of sexual perversion while silencing defenders of the innocent unborn.
The Moral Inversion: Elevating Perversion, Silencing Life
The fundamental scandal lies in the brazen moral inversion orchestrated by the congress organizers. On one hand, the “Ecumenical Working Group BDSM and Christianity,” founded in 1999, is granted a platform on the so-called “Kirchenmeile” (Church Mile). This group explicitly promotes “consensual BDSM culture”—bondage, discipline, dominance, submission, sadism, and masochism—and seeks to take these practices “out of the taboo corner.” On the other hand, the Action for the Right to Life for All (ALfK), Germany’s largest lay pro-life association, along with the Association of Catholic German Teachers (VkdL), had three substantive panel proposals rejected on the grounds of “limited capacity.” These panels addressed surrogacy, abortion, and end-of-life care—topics of existential moral urgency.
The justification offered by ZdK spokeswoman Britta Baas—that two-thirds of applications were rejected due to only 40 panel slots—is a bureaucratic smokescreen. The existence of a pre-selected “topic convention” that predetermined the 40 themes reveals a curated ideological framework. The selection process was not neutral; it was engineered to exclude the defense of life and sexual morality while accommodating their negation. The approval of a panel on assisted suicide featuring Social Democratic Party parliamentarian Lars Castellucci, juxtaposed with the rejection of pro-life panels, further exposes the ideological alignment of the congress leadership with the culture of death.
This is not an isolated incident but a symptom of systemic apostasy. As Pope Pius XI warned in Quas Primas (1925), the removal of Christ and His law from public life leads to “seeds of discord sown everywhere,” “unbridled desires,” and society “heading towards destruction.” The German “Catholic” Congress, by its choices, demonstrates that it has fully embraced the secularist and modernist agenda condemned by every pre-conciliar pontiff.
The Theological Fraud: “No Contradiction with the Catechism”
The claim by congress spokesperson Cosima Jagow-Duda that the BDSM group’s guidelines contain “no contradiction with the Catechism” is a theological fraud of the highest order. It represents either a profound ignorance of Catholic moral theology or a deliberate act of deception designed to normalize grave sin.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (even the post-conciliar version, which retains some orthodox formulations) teaches with absolute clarity:
“Sexual pleasure is morally disordered when sought for itself, isolated from its procreative and unitive purposes” (No. 2351). “Chastity involves the integrity of the person and the integrality of the gift” and is realized in “the complete and lifelong mutual gift of a man and a woman” (No. 2337).
BDSM practices, by their very definition and purpose, are the antithesis of these principles. They instrumentalize the human body and sexuality for purposes of domination, submission, pain, and power—radically divorced from both procreation and the unitive self-gift of spouses. The appeal to “consent” is morally irrelevant. As the article correctly notes, “Consent does not, in Catholic moral theology, automatically change the moral character of an act.” Consensus non facit bonum (Consent does not make an act good). An act is judged by its object, intention, and circumstances, and the object of sadomasochistic acts is intrinsically disordered.
The group’s preamble affirming “belief in the love and salvation through Jesus Christ” while simultaneously promoting BDSM culture is a form of antinomianism—the heresy that grace liberates Christians from the obligation of moral law. This echoes the condemned proposition from the Syllabus of Errors of Pope Pius IX (1864), which rejects the idea that “the violation of any solemn oath, as well as any wicked and flagitious action repugnant to the eternal law, is not only not blamable but is altogether lawful” (Error 64). The attempt to baptize sexual perversion by wrapping it in Christian language is a blasphemous parody of the faith.
The Linguistic Corruption: “Diversity” as a Weapon Against Truth
The congress program book states that “a diversity of opinions that encourages and enriches discourse on the cohesion of society is expressly desired,” with limits only where “discriminatory, racist, or antisemitic convictions” or “ideological distance from the free democratic constitutional order” are represented. This language is not neutral; it is a carefully constructed ideological framework that redefines the boundaries of acceptable discourse.
In this framework, the objective moral law of God—which condemns sodomy, adultery, fornication, and all forms of sexual immorality—is implicitly categorized as “discriminatory” or hostile to the “free democratic constitutional order.” The true “diversity” that the Church has always acknowledged is the diversity of vocations within the unity of faith and morals, not the diversity of moral positions on intrinsic evils. The post-conciliar concept of “diversity” is a direct import from secular liberalism, condemned by Pope Leo XIII in Immortale Dei (1885) and by Pope St. Pius X in Pascendi Dominici Gregis (1907).
The inclusion of a “Queer worship service” titled “Life is colorful — diversity in the Church?!” and a Bible workshop “Reading the Bible queerly. Why G*D is a fan of diversity” further demonstrates that the congress is not merely tolerating dissent but actively promoting liturgical and scriptural perversion. The use of “G*D” with an asterisk is itself a symptom of the modernist corruption that seeks to deconstruct the very name and nature of God.
The Symptomatic Level: The Fruits of the Conciliar Revolution
This scandal is not an aberration but the logical and inevitable fruit of the post-conciliar revolution. The Second Vatican Council’s declaration Dignitatis Humanae on religious freedom, its pastoral constitution Gaudium et Spes with its anthropocentric shift, and the subsequent dismantling of Catholic moral teaching in practice have created an institution that is Catholic in name only.
The German “Church” has been at the forefront of this apostasy. The “Synodal Way” (Synodaler Weg), which has pushed for the acceptance of homosexual unions, the ordination of women, and the democratization of Church governance, is the direct precursor to the moral chaos on display at the Katholikentag. The structures occupying the Vatican under the line of usurpers beginning with John XXIII have systematically dismantled the Church’s ability to proclaim and defend moral truth.
As St. Robert Bellarmine taught, a manifest heretic ceases to be Pope and head ipso facto. The post-conciliar “popes,” by promoting and failing to condemn such manifest heresies and moral abominations, have demonstrated that they lack the authority they claim. The German “bishops” and “cardinals” who enable these scandals are complicit in the spiritual ruin of the faithful. Their “pastoral sensitivity” is, in reality, cowardice and complicity with evil.
The Pro-Life Cause: Excluded but Not Silenced
The rejection of ALfK’s panel proposals is particularly egregious given the existential stakes. Surrogacy commodifies human life and exploits women. Abortion is the direct killing of innocent human beings, a crime that incurs automatic excommunication under canon law (Codex Iuris Canonici 1917, Canon 2350; 1983 Code, Canon 1398). End-of-life care debates involve the constant temptation to embrace euthanasia and assisted suicide, which the Church condemns as violations of the Fifth Commandment.
The fact that ALfK and VkdL have organized parallel events outside the official program—including a lecture by surgeon Kai Witzel, a presentation by ALfK chair Cornelia Kaminski, and a panel with Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer of Regensburg—demonstrates that the pro-life movement in Germany retains its commitment to truth despite institutional opposition. Kaminski’s statement that “the commitment to the protection of human life belongs at the heart of the Church” is a direct rebuke to the congress leadership.
However, the participation of Bishop Voderholzer in events parallel to the official program raises questions. While his presence may provide a veneer of legitimacy, the true Church’s authority resides not in institutional structures captured by modernists but in the unchanging deposit of faith and the sacraments validly administered. The faithful must look to the immutable teachings of the pre-conciliar Magisterium, not to “bishops” who operate within structures that have abandoned the faith.
The Unchanging Teaching: Chastity, Life, and the Kingship of Christ
The crisis on display at the German Catholic Congress is ultimately a crisis of the rejection of the Kingship of Christ. Pope Pius XI, in Quas Primas, proclaimed that Christ’s reign “encompasses also all non-Christians, so that most truly the entire human race is subject to the authority of Jesus Christ.” The “rulers” of the German “Church” have explicitly rejected this kingship, substituting the dictates of secular liberalism and the “free democratic constitutional order” for the law of Christ.
The Church has always taught, from the Apostles through the Fathers and the medieval pontiffs, that sexual activity is licit only within the bounds of marriage between a man and a woman, ordered toward procreation and union. Extra ecclesiam nulla salus (Outside the Church there is no salvation) applies not only to the forgiveness of sins but to the preservation of moral truth. The German “Catholic” Congress, by its actions, has placed itself outside the bounds of Catholic teaching and, by extension, outside the true Church.
The faithful must reject this abomination utterly. As Pope St. Pius X declared in Lamentabili Sane Exitu (1907), the errors of Modernism—including the evolution of dogmas, the democratization of the Church, and the subordination of faith to modern culture—are condemned and anathematized. The German Katholikentag is a living synthesis of these condemned errors.
Conclusion: A Call to Fidelity
The 104th German Catholic Congress in Würzburg is not a gathering of the faithful but a showcase of apostasy. By approving a BDSM advocacy group while rejecting pro-life panels, by promoting “queer worship” and “diverse” readings of Scripture, and by claiming that sexual perversion is compatible with the Catechism, the organizers have revealed the true face of the post-conciliar neo-church.
This is the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place (Matthew 24:15). The structures occupying the Vatican and their national subsidiaries, such as the ZdK, are not the Church of Christ but the synagogue of Satan described by Pope Leo XIII in Humanum Genus (1884). The faithful must have the courage to stand apart from these structures, to profess the unchanging truth of Catholic doctrine, and to reject the moral inversions of the modernist revolution.
Non possumus (We cannot). We cannot compromise with evil. We cannot accept that BDSM is compatible with Christianity. We cannot remain silent while the unborn are killed and the dying are encouraged to take their own lives. The true Church endures in the faithful who profess the integral Catholic faith, led by validly ordained priests and bishops who uphold the immutable Tradition. To them, the message is clear: State super vias antiquas et videte quae sit bona via et ambulate in ea (Stand by the ancient paths, and see which is the good way, and walk in it—Jeremiah 6:16).
Source:
German Catholic congress approves bondage group's booth (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 14.05.2026