COLOGNE, Germany — A carnival float in Cologne that provocatively linked Jesus to the Catholic Church’s abuse scandal has been met with sharp criticism from the German Catholic Church.
The float, revealed on Tuesday, depicts an altar boy standing before a confessional, with an arm reaching out and an open hand beckoning the boy inside. Along the side of the confessional, the phrase “Jesus loves you” is prominently displayed.
The Cologne archdiocese has condemned the float, labeling it as “tasteless” in a statement released on its website. They argued that the inscription “Jesus loves you” in this context unfairly associates Jesus with the scandal, suggesting that he, the Son of God, is implicated in the abuse.
The letter from the archdiocese states that the float implies Jesus is present in the confessional and enticing the altar boy, thus instrumentalizing the religious figure inappropriately.
Cologne’s annual Shrove Monday parade is known for its tradition of using floats to satirically critique political figures and cultural issues. However, the Church believes that this time the organizers of the city’s carnival committee have overstepped a significant boundary.
The archdiocese expressed that associating the Son of God with the horrific acts of abuse perpetrated within the Catholic Church crosses an unacceptable line and cannot be justified in any manner.
Members of the center-right Christian Democratic party, including a former mayor of Cologne, echoed this sentiment. They decried the float’s design in a letter, suggesting it was embarrassingly tasteless and could diminish the reputation of Cologne’s carnival.
Cologne, known for its majestic cathedral, holds a deep-rooted Catholic tradition, historically being a major pilgrimage site during the Middle Ages. However, a noticeable number of German Catholics, including those in Cologne, have distanced themselves from the Church in recent years. They have expressed feelings of betrayal and frustration over the magnitude of the sex abuse revelations and criticized the Church’s response to prosecuting offenders as insufficient.
A report from 2018, commissioned by the Church, identified that at least 3,677 individuals had suffered abuse at the hands of clergy members in Germany between 1946 and 2014. Alarmingly, over half of the victims were 13 years old or younger, with nearly a third serving as altar boys.
Responding to the criticism, Christoph Kuckelkorn, the head of the Cologne Carnival Committee, dismissed the backlash. He asserted that the offensive element is not the portrayal of abuse, but the abuse itself and the Church’s handling of it. Kuckelkorn emphasized that carnival, at its core, revolves around satire and challenging individuals to think critically about serious societal issues.
