According to German media reports emerging early on Friday morning, staff members and clergy in the Archdiocese of Cologne made "mass attempts to access porn websites" on church-supplied computers.

The Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger newspaper, which broke the story, reported that the diocese leadership was informed as early as July 2022 about corresponding activities by 15 employees.

Such activities, even if they are not punishable under either state or church law, are not permitted as part of the labor agreement with the archdiocese, which is located in western Germany.

Pornography is considered reprehensible and a grave sin under Catholic sexual morality.

What did the report find?

The Archdiocese of Cologne explained to the Catholic News Agency (KNA) that the church also monitors IT security, including "checking whether the firewalls reliably fend off attempts to access sites that pose a risk in terms of IT security."

According to reports, the list of those who transgressed included a high-ranking priest.

As per the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, the cybersecurity team for the archdiocese gathered data from the end of May 2022 to the end of June 2022.

Within that one-month period, there were around "1,000 access attempts to pages that were blocked by a protective filter because of questionable, undesirable content and potential threats to IT security," the paper reported.

The majority of the suspicious activity concerned pornographic sites.

Cologne archbishop 'disappointed' by staff behavior

The archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, expressed his dismay in a statement. 

"It disappointed me that employees tried to access pornographic pages with the help of devices that our archdiocese made available for their work — even though the firewalls kicked in," Woelki said.

"To some, the consumption of pornography may appear harmless," he added. "But I agree with Pope Francis, who condemns it and warns of its dangers, in particular the violation of human dignity."

The archbishop went on to say that the archdiocese has many "committed and reliable" employees.

Why is the list coming to light now?

This list was not previously passed on to the public prosecutor's office because, according to the archdiocese, there were no indications of criminal offenses.

In June this year, the list came to light again after police raided an employee of the archdiocese who was suspected of having child abuse material. The staff member no longer works for the archdiocese.

According to the report, although there were no indications that the material viewed on church computers was illegal, archdiocese officials turned over the information to Cologne investigators.

The revelations are the latest in a growing list of scandals involving the Cologne archdiocese. In June this year, a German court ordered the church to pay €300,000 in damages over sex abuse cases.

jsi/rs (KNA, DW sources)