Erotic Jesus Sparks Outrage

Curators at the museum of Vienna's Roman Catholic Cathedral have come under intense criticism, after they decided to display a retrospective honouring Austria's cherished artist Alfred Hrdlicka.

What could make the Catholic community so upset, you ask? Perhaps it has something to do with the theme of the art:

The Church hastily removed the main picture, "a homosexual orgy" of the Apostles as Hrdlicka describes it.

"I don't see any blasphemy here," he said, gesturing at a Crucifixion picture showing a soldier simultaneously beating Jesus and holding his genitals. "People can imagine what they want to."

But the most disputed work was Leonardo's Last Supper, restored by Pier Paolo Pasolini which showed cavorting Apostles sprawling over the dining table and masturbating each other.

That's it? Man, those Catholics sure can be nit-pickerish.

Parts of the article is downright funny, and other parts are downright mind-boggling. Here's a portion of the downright funny:

Currators weren't ready for a barrage of angry messages and calls to be shut down.

Although I may not be a curator and have a limited knowledge of art, even I can figure out that if you take the Last Supper and reorganize it to have Peter blowing Paul, Christians might get a tad angry about this.

I'm wondering what the curators actually thought the response to this was going to be? "Well, Dietmar, I'm sure after the public sees this picture of James sucking off Andrew, they'll be so happy they'll throw us a parade!"

On the downright mind-boggling side, here are a few responses from the curators and the *artist* himself:

The museum never intended to offend people, art should be allowed to provoke a debate.

And how could a picture of Jesus on the cross getting beaten to death while a soldier grabs his balls offend anyone? That's hardly offensive at all. Let's face it, Christians can be such prudes.

And here's what *artist* boy has to say about that particular piece or *art*:

"I don't see any blasphemy here," he said, gesturing at a Crucifixion picture showing a soldier simultaneously beating Jesus and holding his genitals. "People can imagine what they want to."

He doesn't see any blasphemy because he's a close-minded old fool who gets his perverted jollies sculpting and drawing naked men having sex with each other. Why on earth would it offend him, Christianity isn't sacred to him, it's just something to be mocked and ridiculed.

On the bright side, no one with any common sense respects his demented point of view. And when he dies, he'll die a lonely, crusty hack that people will remember as being that icky old fart who created vile shit that people laughed at.

Be gone with ya!