If there is anyone out there who doesn’t have enough to be shocked about, you can bet your John Galliano that the fashion industry will find some way to offend them within the next five minutes. That’s what fashion thrives on: subversion and irreverence; an immaculately groomed, sneering Johnny Rotten worth millions, the world’s best-dressed troll. The Read more
Catholics from China admit feeling embarrassed when they see a crucifix. Beyond the image of a tortured man suffering execution, the crucifixion depicts total humiliation, or “loss of face” as the Chinese say. To them, this seems harsher than the physical pain. The trouble with the crucifix is we no longer see it, but rather Read more
A man in the US has lost his leg and is suing a church after a crucifix he prayed to every day fell on him. David Jimenez, a 45-year-old man from New York, offered to clean the crucifix as a service after he prayed to the monument every day while his wife, Delia, was fighting Read more
Gruesome re-enactments of Jesus’ crucifixion are an increasing Good Friday tourism drawcard in the Philippines. “There are few places on earth where religious fervor is matched in such graphic shows of penitence and resolve to do better”, Asian Pearl Vision, a small luxury travel designer in the Philippines writes on its website. In an article “Crucifixion in Read more
Kitchy symbols of pop culture, a crucifix, a movable penis and Christ do not mix well and have offended Filipino Catholics. “May your soul burn in hell” wrote a furious Facebook user, one of many who have denounced the work of Mideo Cruz as offensive art. Cruz intended the work to be a commentary on Read more
The Vatican welcomed as “historic” a ruling by the European Court of Rights that said displaying crucifixes in schools in Italy did not breach the rights of non-Catholics. “It is an important and historic ruling,” Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said in a statement, adding that the decision “has been welcomed with satisfaction by the Holy Read more