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Add to NewsvineFor your Eastertide enjoyment, the art museum of Vienna's Roman Catholic cathedral features a new exhibit by an artist named Alfred Hrdlicka, whose drawings depict the Last Supper as a homosexual orgy. One of them shows the crucified Christ being beaten by a Roman soldier, who is simultaneously performing a sex act on the Lord. "Religion, Flesh and Power" the exhibition is called.
I'm not kidding. Watch this video clip of the images on display. In the cathedral museum.
I take it that Vienna's Cardinal Archbishop Christoph Schoenborn must be deceased or imprisoned, because I can't imagine that an actual bishop would allow a desecration like this in a church museum, much less the one belonging to his cathedral (and next to his residence). No kidding, I wouldn't have guessed that, given his reputation, a man like Schoenborn would have stood for this abomination for half a second. Then again, the Austrian church has been in recent years notably tolerant of religious expression in this vein, so what do I know?
Look, I'm glad that we don't have to worry about Catholic mobs worldwide burning down Austrian embassies and attacking screenings of "The Sound of Music" to protest this blasphemy. But quietism from church authorities in the face of something like this -- and not only quietism, but tacit endorsement, given the venue! -- sends a powerful message of how deep the rot has gone.
[H/T: Brussels Journal.]
UPDATE: In the comboxes below, Cleveland observes that it's a wonder this sort of thing hasn't happened in a US cathedral church. Patrick Rothwell says this is exactly the kind of thing that the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine in NYC gets into all the time. That reminded me of a 1993 piece by Terry Mattingly, on how a visit to an earth liturgy at St. John the Divine cathedral helped drive him from the Episcopal church. Excerpt:
But, for me, the most symbolic moment of the service came at the offertory. Before the bread and wine were brought to the altar, the musicians offered a rhythmic chant that soared into the cathedral vault:OBA ye Oba yo Yemanja
Oba ye Oba yo O Yemanja
Oby ye Oba yo O O Ausar
Oba ye Oba yo O Ra Ausar
Praises to Obatala, ruler of the Heavens
Praises to Obatala, ruler of the Heavens
Praises to Yemenja, ruler of the waters of life
Praises to Yemenja, ruler of the waters of life
Praises to Ausar, ruler of Amenta, the realm of the ancestors
Praises to Ra and Ausar, rulers of the light and the resurrected soul.
-- From the printed worship booklet for ``Liturgy and Sermon, Earth Mass -- Missa Gaia,'' distributed on Oct. 3, 1993, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.Then the congregation joined in and everyone sang ``Let all mortal flesh keep silence.''
I sat down, confused. As a journalist, I have attended many interfaith services and I know all about the kinds of rites now being used at many seminaries and New Age conferences. I knew all about the trendy reputation of this particular cathedral.
But this was a Sunday morning Mass, led by a diocesan bishop. Once again, I checked the printed liturgy.
What was going on?
Ra? The sun god of Egypt? Ausar?
Meanwhile, the service continued. At the altar, New York Bishop Richard Grein raised his arms and began the consecration prayers.
Still, my heart was troubled. For the first time, I decided not to receive communion at an Episcopal altar. I was not sure what I would be receiving.
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Comments
"...the entire subject of gay rights, homosexuality, etc. cannot be reasonably discussed or even debated by anyone without people descending into ill-informed hysteria and rage, families and churches being destroyed, and social institutions becoming diverted from more pressing matters. Whatever happened to MYOB?"
MYOB, of course, depends on NOT discussing whatever one's own business may be. MYOB is short for "don't ask don't tell," which, as a lawyer who has handled a number of military cases, I have real problems with. In fact, as nearly as I can tell, conventional anti-gay wisdom among all but the most fanatical is that gay people are welcome to continue doing whatever they do as long as they don't require the rest of us to see or hear anything about it. IOW close that damn closet door.
Which makes the whole issue one of free speech rather than free love. Can we possibly talk about this stuff without getting enraged? Or are we supposed to just dial the clock back a couple of generations and be grateful that nobody is peeking in the closet keyhole?
Posted by: Marian Neudel | April 3, 2008 7:07 PM
"MYOB, of course, depends on NOT discussing whatever one's own business may be...conventional anti-gay wisdom among all but the most fanatical is that gay people are welcome to continue doing whatever they do as long as they don't require the rest of us to see or hear anything about it." Marian Neudel
Please try to understand this, Marian-- the opposition of conventional Conservatives to current homosexualism goes beyond what YOU call conventional anti-gay wisdom. Therefore, you are calling Conservatives the most fanatical of people. Is that your business?
The problem is that homosexuals and people like you DO require the rest of us to see or hear about it. They don't want to mind their own business; they want to mind MY business. They want to attack MY religion publicly by gratuitous snarky comments, for example, in this blog, and by gratuitous filthy, blasphemous, in-your face attack-paintings and other "works of art", not in the privacy of their own homes, but in Christian and secular settings open to the public. They do so because they want to whine and act persecuted so that they can try to lay guilt trips on us.
They want to spread, with tax dollars, their disorder to MY children in public schools. (Google "homosexuality in schools")
They want to make it a crime for MY Catholic priests to teach MY religion in the pulpits of MY churches. (Google "hate speech bill")
They want to vilify MY country and destroy MY social beliefs and traditions because they want not only the same rights as everyone else, but more "rights"; "rights" to force private organizations to allow them to go on overnight camping trips with same sex teens, and, if not, then to have those organizations banned from the use of public parks and buildings; "rights" to force members of the same sex armed forces to shower and bunk with them, and so on.
So between me and thee, who's the fanatic, Marian?
Posted by: Cleveland | April 4, 2008 12:26 AM
Did you see the Reuters article on this topic that plugged the site?
Posted by: Trey | April 7, 2008 2:59 PM
I will first say that I am a non-believer.
It amazes how fundamentalists, be they muslim, christian or jewish, are quick to seize the chance to be offended in the name of their god. How come hard-line believers hardly ever express outrage at seeing poor, hungry, or dispossessed children? Where is the outrage? Why be so concerned about pictures and symbols when there is plenty of outrageousness going on everywhere, all the time, in the REAL world? If people stopped worrying about symbols and icons and cared more about their neighbors, things might be better.
Believers get angry when their beliefs are challenged. The fact is, faith is nothing more than the voluntary abandonment of reason in favor of an unprovable, unlikely, and unreliable story. The foudation is weak, that is why people of faith hate to be challenged.
To believe god cares about oneself more than another, to believe god would make man is his image, is the pinnacle of arrogance. In his image?!? Seriously? Who's in his image? George Bush? Osama Bin Laden? Ann Coulter? The gangs of Darfur? Robert Mugabe? The Crips? The Bloods? Vladimir Putin? The roving gangs of Haïti? The excutioner in Huntsville? Racists? Cheaters? Elliot Spitzer? Dick Cheney? Henry Kissinger? Stalin? Have I left out many god lookalikes? It amazes me how we humans think we are special. Would an all-powerful god really be so crass as to reward people who behave nicely (just to get to heaven or, perhaps more accurately, to avoid hell) and punish people who don't?
Get off your high horses, believers, you are no better and no worse than your neighbors, whether they share your mythological beliefs or not.
R Holder
self-righteous
Posted by: richard holder | April 7, 2008 4:45 PM
"Why be so concerned about pictures and symbols when there is plenty of outrageousness going on everywhere, all the time, in the REAL world?"
I presume that you paused from your labor with the poor of Calcutta to write this post?
...It is fitting that you signed "self-righteous."
Posted by: Just Wondering | April 7, 2008 5:15 PM
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