Posted on 11/15/2007 4:45:33 AM PST by WesternCulture
A well-known art group has ruffled the Catholic Church’s feathers by portraying John Paul II as a paedophile.
Artist group Surrend has again achieved its goal of provoking the establishment through two displays on a Polish website depicting the late Pope John Paul II as a paedophile, reported public broadcaster DR last week.
The webpage, placed on the vaticansex.pl website, shows an image of the late pontiff lifting the gowns of two alter boys while saying: ‘I’m against homosexuality, but all for paedophilia.’ The second image is of the former pope burning in the flames of hell.
The webpage was intended to create debate over freedom of speech in the Polish elections and caused a stir in the Polish and German media.
But Iben Thranholm, spokesperson for the Catholic Church in Denmark, saw no correlation between the content of the two depictions and freedom of speech.
‘Pope John Paul II wasn’t an oppressor. He was a great liberator, especially in connection with communism,’ said Thranholm. ‘It is due to his efforts that the Polish people are today free to say what they want.’
Surrend’s Jan Egesborg disagreed and pointed to a case from 2002 in which a Polish newspaper editor was found guilty of writing a satirical piece prior to John Paul’s visit to Poland that year.
‘So I would say that it’s actually quite relevant,’ said Egesborg.
It is not the first time Surrend has succeeded in offending a powerful institution.
The group riled the Iranian government in December 2006 after it successfully arranged for an advert to be printed in one of the country’s newspapers that appeared to support Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad’s resistance to the United States. But the first letter of each line printed under Ahmedinejad’s picture spelled out ‘Swine’.
Furthermore, there’s no evidence that I know of that supports the notion that the late Pope John Paul II accepted pedophilia within the Catholic Church.
However, it is not unlikely that a certain Mohammad was a pedophile and it is up to those who defend him to convince the rest of us that he was not.
In any case, I hope these artists continue to attack Iran, just like all of the Free World ought to do.
illiterate author? alter = altar?
Given the fact the John Paul II was Polish and that Poland is a heavily Catholic country I’m surprised there hasn’t not been a huge outcry against this. Artist or not, there are boundaries of good taste and respect that should not be crossed. This only once again demonstrates the coarsening of society.
Can we start rioting and setting cars on fire?
MoveOn.org and Code Pink are probably proud of such attacks, as it will further their goals.
The liberals of today seem to think as Adolf Hitler thought: the end justifies the means.
This is so evident of the thinking of these morally bankrupt people: they wish to follow in the footsteps of Adolf Hitler...
“illiterate author? alter = altar?”
- Hardly illiterate, but as Copenhagen Post is a Danish newspaper, the English skills of their employees might not be on a par with those of journalists in the Anglo-Saxon countries. But my impression is that Danes in general handle the English language pretty well.
someday these idiots will face the music for what they’ve done.
How many people, no matter what their religion, can learn about JPII’s life and not come away impressed?
He was a human being who could not solve all the problems within the church (many problems that existed prior to his reign), but he was also able to accomplish much good for the church as well as setting a fantastic personal example for the rest of us.
If he was truly an artist pushing the limits of free speech, he would portray Mohammad as a pedophile.
This clown is simply a coward.
I’m a Protestant and view JP II as one of the four greatest champions of freedom and leaders of Western Civilization in the twentieth century, the other three being, in order, Winston Churchill, Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. This kind of smear against that great man is despicable.
The ROP would know what to do!
But then the anti-Christian, pro-Islam courts and politians would throw the offender in jail for a “hate crime”.
“I’m a Protestant and view JP II as one of the four greatest champions of freedom and leaders of Western Civilization in the twentieth century, the other three being, in order, Winston Churchill, Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. This kind of smear against that great man is despicable.”
I am a cradle catholic that was not practicing much of anything when I got married.
I married a guy who was not practicing much of anything too, but was quite adamantly opposed to catholicism.
The example of Pope JPII was such an attractive shining example, that my hubby bought his biography and that was the beginning of the “softening” of his harsh view.
Long story short...he became a catholic - which made me a better catholic, and now we’re raising a large family.
God Bless!
“Gee, these people are sooooo brave.”
I’ll have to start visiting the catholic sites and see how many riots are being planned right about now.
Let’s see if we catholics can manage to have a productive “day of anger”
A rosary march?
Day one of a novena?
Everyone! fill your little plastic bottles with holy water and take to the streets!
Hell the USA is a predominately Christian nation and the Left Wing has been mocking Christ for years
A hell of a lot of Christians of all denominations still vote for the party of the left
I had a professor once who was Danish (teaching in the US for one year). His English was very good and he published several books in English, but he would sometimes come out with odd pronunciations—like a long A in “pastures.”
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