Madrid, Spain, Mar 15, 2007 / 06:44 am
Archbishop Santiago Garcia of Merida-Badajoz and Bishop Amadeo Rodriguez of Plasencia have strongly denounced the tax-payer funded publication of a catalogue containing pornographic images of Christ, the Virgin Mary and the Saints.
Archbishop Garcia issued a statement on the publications called “Sanctorum” and “In Breeding” by photographer J.A.M Montoya and supported by officials in the region of Exremadura, saying they “profoundly and gravely harm the religious sentiments of Christians.”
The archbishop called it regrettable that local officials would support the publication of pornographic, insulting, and blasphemous images. “I wish to make known my radical disagreement and profound disgust for this inexcusable act that does not contribute in any way to the cultural enrichment of our people, the education of our young people, and the well-deserved positive image of Extremadura,” he stated.
Bishop Rodriguez issued his own statement condemning the publication as an offense against “the most beloved and sacred aspects of our Catholic religion, the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and his Most Holy Mother.”
He said that responsibility for the photos falls not only on their creator, “but also on those who promote them, who show them, and even those who use them for reasons unrelated to the faith.”
He called on Catholics and people of good will to express their repulsion of such photos, “because they offend the holy realities of our religion and also because they are completely foreign and extraneous to our culture.”
The photos represent a painful rupture with Spain’s artistic patrimony, he stressed, which always found its greatest source of inspiration in images of the faith.