VIENNA- CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL 'S MUSEUM- JESUS IN HOMO***UAL ORGY
PICTURES
Outrage over Alfred Hrdlicka's gay Jesus
By Harry de Quetteville in Berlin
Pictures depicting Jesus being fondled and the Apostles groping each
other have caused outrage after they were displayed in a museum
attached to
Vienna's Roman Catholic Cathedral.
The museum has been forced to remove the most controversial picture,
in which the Apostles engage in what the artist describes as a
"homo***ual
orgy".
a.. The exhibition, entitled "Religion, Flesh and Power" featured
works from sculptor and artist Alfred Hrdlicka, who turned 80 this
year and
is widely feted in his native Austria.
It quickly began attracting criticism from Catholic groups after
opening last week, some of which described the pictures as
"blasphemous".
The website Gloria TV, whose catch line is "the more Catholic the
better", produced a graphic video of the exhibition, condemning it
for
being
"sup****ted by the Church".
Some local media have likened the controversy to the bitter argument
over the cartoon ****trayal of Islam's prophet Mohammed, which led to
protests and violence around the world.
Vienna's archbishop, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, has now ordered
the "homo***ual orgy" picture, entitled Leonardo's Last Supper, to be
taken
down.
"This has nothing to do with censor****p", said the Cardinal, adding
that it was removed with "reverence for the sacred".
But other pictures which have proved also controversial, including
one
showing Christ being fondled while on the cross, are still on
display.
Bernhard Boehler, the museum curator, has insisted that despite the
criticism, the exhibition is serving its purpose by encouraging
debate.
"We think Hrdlicka is entitled to represent people in this carnal,
drastic way," he said. "People can imagine what they want to."
According to notes accompanying the exhibition, Mr Hrdlicka's work
focuses on the carnality of religion, and on the search for "God as a
human
experience".
http://www.groupsrv.com/religion/about289177.html
Vienna Cardinal Regrets *****c Last Supper ArtThe cardinal told the
museum to take down the picture, =BDa homo***ual orgy=BD of the Apostles
as Hrdlicka describes it.
Reuters Vienna's Roman Catholic cardinal said on Wednesday that he
regrets the exhibition of a homo*****c version of Christ's Last
Supper
in a museum linked to his diocese.
The controversial work was exhibited in Vienna's Cathedral Museum as
part of a retrospective honouring Austria's renowned artist Alfred
Hrdlicka, who recently turned 80.
Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, archbishop of Vienna, said he had
backed the exhibition without knowing the detailed contents.
"I obviously would not have agreed to have blasphemous or
****ographic
works exhibited. I therefore explicitly regret that a work of this
kind was exhibited without my knowledge," the cardinal said in a
statement.
The cardinal told the museum to take down the picture, "a homo***ual
orgy" of the Apostles as Hrdlicka describes it, just over a week
after
the display opened, after some visitors complained and it provoked a
fierce uproar on Catholic websites.
Protest has continued over the picture 'Leonardo's Last Supper,
restored by Pier Paolo Pasolini' which showed cavorting Apostles
lounging on the dining table and masturbating each other. It was
supposed to be a highlight of the display.
"In some of (the pictures) he oversteps the essential threshold of
respect for the sacred," the cardinal said, adding that the museum
does not identify with all of the works.
But he also defended Hrdlicka as one of Austria's most notable living
artists who deserved such a retrospective.
"Hrdlicka...probably more than any other living artist, has devoted
himself to the suffering and downtrodden human being and has appealed
for "compassion" with the "Passion," he said.
The museum has said it did not set out to offend people but has
defended Hrdlicka's work and the decision to display the
controversial
versions of biblical imagery.
Schoenborn, a former student of Pope Benedict who edited the Catholic
Church's official catechism in the 1990s, maintains that art inspired
by the Bible should be celebrated.
"I still hold the opinion that we must welcome the fact that artists
who do not share our faith, or are still searching for belief, occupy
themselves so intensively with biblical subjects," he said.
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