The ‘naked pope’ and Catholic outrage

[rug]

Posted by Mathew N. Schmalz on May 5, 2013 at 10:29 pm

What does it mean when Catholics take offense?

That, for me at any rate, is the most interesting question raised by how some Catholics have reacted to an incident at Carnegie-Mellon University on April 19.

During the school’s 4th annual Anti-Gravity Downhill Derby, an undergraduate woman reportedly passed out condoms, dressed in mock papal regalia. She was naked from the waist down and her pubic hair was shaved in the shape of a cross. The Carnegie-Mellon student was “the naked pope.”

Academics love this kind of stuff.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-faith/wp/2013/05/05/the-naked-pope-and-catholic-outrage/

[ZombieHorde]

1. Oops, I thought this was the religion group.

I don't normally post here since I am not a Catholic.

[rug]

2. Post away!

It's not a grotto.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

3. I knew that person numero uno in taking umbrage would be Bill Donohue.

He thinks it is his job to do it.

[rug]

4. I like the way he ended it.

But there are other ways for Catholics to think about offense. In his most celebrated work, Silence, the Japanese Catholic author Shusaku Endo writes about a priest who is given the opportunity to save others from torture by stamping on a picture of Jesus. In doing so, the priest would not only be effectively renouncing his faith, he would be committing an act of violence against the person he loved most: Jesus. Martyrdom is also one of the highest callings of a Christian.

The priest’s choice raises questions about the purpose of human suffering and especially God’s apparent “silence” within it. But the priest’s choice also points to a Christian disposition to offensiveness, and a way to reflect on deeper acts of symbolic violence. Vulnerable and broken, torn between two impossible courses of action, the priest hears a voice: “Trample! Trample! It is to be trampled upon by you that I am here.”

[IrishAyes]

5. So true.

And trampled upon He is.