The approach of the East German ruling party to organised religion was not as relentless as that of sister parties in some of the other Soviet Bloc socialist states. Nevertheless, the ruling parties could not be expected to welcome signs that a church organisation might be presenting itself as an alternative source of ideas or influence. Father Gordian Landwehr's popularity as a preacher did not go unchallenged in the media. An article appeared in the Sächsische Zeitung describing Landwehr as a "NATO preacher in the robes of a Jesuit" ("Natoprediger im Jesuitengewand"). After such an unsubtle rebuke, leaders of the Dominican Order in West Germany expected that Landwehr would be arrested at any moment and requested his return to the Federal Republic. He himself was certain that the East German authorities would have welcomed such an outcome. But with the backing of the recently appointed Bishop of Berlin, Julius Döpfner, Gordian Landwehr chose to stay where he was, to the east of the internal frontier between the two versions of Germany. He ignored the preaching ban to which he was subjected and refused to be intimidated. From the perspective of one Christian commentator, "He continued to bear witness to the living God before the young people who were faced with a system that poured scorn and ridicule on a God that it tried to present as a fantasy figure". Supporters are convinced that, even though no other Catholic preacher was as openly critical of Communist ideology as he was, it was precisely on account of his popularity with his listeners that the party did not move more decisively against Landwehr. In his autobiography he himself later recalled an off-the-record remark from a party official in the late 1970s: "Father, here you have the freedom of the fool; you can say anything".