Diocese of Essen, Germany, features new Diocesan Logo

Just stunning…

Diocese of Essen, Germany, features new Diocesan Logo

In 2022, the Novus Ordo diocese of Essen, Germany, decided to give itself a visual makeover by rebranding with a new logo to reflect its contemporary attitude of renewal, dialogue, and togetherness.

The result of this diocesan facelift can be seen in the edifying result above.

No, the diocese is not embarrassed about its new logo. On the contrary, it is celebrating it as “modern, lively, different”. An article on its official web site introducing the artistic mishap — called the “Dialogue Cross” — explains:

With the Dialogue Cross as the new logo and central element, the diocese picks up a symbol that has accompanied and shaped the renewal processes in the Catholic Church between the Rhine, Ruhr and Lenne rivers for eleven years. Since the beginning of the dialogue process, the cross has stood for the new culture of togetherness, as a symbol of change in the church of the Ruhr bishopric.

“Although the logo itself is new, the pictorial element has been known, introduced and accepted for years,” says Vicar General Klaus Pfeffer. It has met with great acceptance and can now be found in many places, not only in the small version, but also in the larger version, for example, in daycare centers and soon also in the episcopal schools as well as in parishes and institutions.

(Jürgen Flatken, “Bistum Essen präsentiert neues Logo”, Katholische Kirche Bistum Essen, Apr. 4, 2022; basic translation via DeepL)

The diocese even released a brief video clip introducing its new hipness:

Ironically, the new logo is supposed to help identify Essen as a “Roman Catholic” entity:

When questions arose in the diocese: “Are we still sufficiently recognizable as a Catholic church? Does our logo quickly identify what it stands for? What do we stand for?”, it quickly became clear that there was a need for change. Together with the Essen-based agency 31M, the diocese worked out that it was not enough just to change the logo.

No doubt, the “Dialogue Cross” just screams Roman Catholic church. Oh wait, maybe not:

Another new feature is the addition of the words “Catholic Church” to the foreground of the logo to ensure better recognizability for the general public. “We can no longer assume that everyone knows what exactly the term diocese means,” Pfeffer explains. At the same time, he said, such open and broader symbolism through the cross and lettering invites many organizations, institutions and parishes to adopt this logo for themselves as well. “There is a great chance that in this way we will become more recognizable in public communication with all the diversity of our diocese,” said the vicar general.

It is no doubt true that a great many people will no longer know what the term “diocese” (Bistum) means by now, although the Vatican II Sect has been working feverishly to ensure that the label Catholic Church, which it has illicitly appropriated, is becoming just as meaningless. The new Essen logo only underscores that.

The mottos that accompany the new “identity” of the diocese of Essen are “You shape church” (Du gestaltest Kirche) and “You impact [move] church” (Du bewegst Kirche). If that doesn’t appeal to modern man!

Another rendition of the new logo being used in Essen now looks like this:

Clearly, the visual facelift was overdue for the bishopric. To compare, the prior logo looked like this:

One might not find that terribly well-done either, perhaps, but at least the image communicated what it was a logo for: the Roman Catholic diocese of Essen, represented by the cathedral of the local ordinary.

Not so with the new logo. Without the lettering beside it, the “Dialogue Cross” could stand for any Protestant denomination or even just a generic “spiritualism”. It certainly does not allow for an unambiguous identification with anything Roman Catholic.

In that sense, it is at least not misleading: Just like the Novus Ordo religion it actually represents, the “Dialogue Cross” is dull, uninspiring, lackluster, hollow, without substance, a work in progress, with LGBTQ+ overtones and just a hint of some past connection with religion — it could stand for anything and so stands for nothing. In the practical order, then, the “Dialogue Cross” is simply meaningless. Finally, some truth in advertising!

By the way: The false shepherd (Novus Ordo bishop) in Essen, by the way, is Mr. Franz-Josef Overbeck (b. 1964). In 2021, he published a pastoral letter in which he claimed that God is present in sodomitical relationships, as long as they are “respectful and loving”.

And now he’s got the logo to go with his theology.

Image source: Diocese of Essen
Licenses: fair use