Speechless….  And sad for these artists…

The forces of evil continue to try and eclipse the Light of Christ in the world.

Lord have mercy on them for doing such a thing - truly horrific.

As the darkness spreads .... :(

I’m not sure it is a good idea to give free advertising for what sound like the ramblings of a seriously mentally unstable man. It is absolutely impossible to answer his “criticism” because it makes absolutely no sense. It’s just a succession of sounds which seems to reveal a level of hatred quite unprecedented in human history but nothing is certain since their main characteristic is that they make no sense. At all.

So, if you call it “art,” you can say or do any horrible thing you like, and probably get funding for it.  This story brings to mind the controversy around Palin’s gun-sight map, but I guess that wasn’t “art.”

Tim, do you actually believe in the message the artists are trying to convey? If you think it’s nonsense, just ignore it. All the rest of us do. Why get so exercised over something so unimportant?

Paul,
While I don’t believe the message, I point it out simply to demonstrate the outrageousness of what passes for “art” by the cultural elites among us. My post is something akin to what the Catholic League does, in trying to show examples where Christ and His Church are being defamed. Ideas have consequences, even if they are very bad ideas. This so-called “artwork” is conveying an idea that unfortunately seems all-too-common by many these days. In all the talk about “civility,” one wonders why the Church doesn’t receive civility.

I think one reason to get upset at this is that the offense againt God is so terrible.  Would you not get upset of the defamation and outright hatred of a spouse or child?  How much more then should we feel badly for such an offense against God?  Granted, we are not called to be angry, judging, or self-righteous (none of which was conveyed in this blog), but to pray “unceasingly” for these poor lost souls, for their conversion and pray for reparation of their sins - as well as our own….

Of course, I suppose I am preaching to the choir here, though :)

Paul, Tim gets so ‘exercised’ because these kinds of art exhibits are the province of the ‘intellectuals’ and the ‘intellectuals’ have the power of the media behind them. Ignoring them is like trying to ignore the sun.

This is information worth noting for us Catholics - to offer prayers and fasting not just for the lost souls out there but also for us to be vigilant in guarding our faith in the face of hatred in the world.

At least I know where I will not visit when I go to Toronto this year!

I think we need to start having many exorcisms, even group, if possible.  I think we have overlooked the possibility, in this day and age, that many are possessed by demons and satan.  These people are evidence of it and I know that I deal with many people with such unbacked hatred for holy people, places, and things that I can’t help but wonder, while I am conversing with them, is this person possessed?  No rational argument seems to get through to them either.  Logic just confuses them.  It is as if a veil has dropped and they can only accept what will add to their hatred.  I think it is satan’s greatest weapon in this day to convince people of this sort that he isn’t real or that he can’t effect events in this world.  However, with such an absence of wanting God in our daily lives satan and his demons have full access to many people.  When we were calling on God and had Him front and center in our homes, schools, places of work, etc. satan couldn’t touch us.  Now without God acknowledged first in everything we do satan is allowed to take over these areas that don’t have the covering of Christ.  We see natural disasters increase, horrific killings, blasphemous artwork, etc.  Satan fills the void of God with idols and many other profane hobbies.  Yes, we need an exorcism and a renewal of devotion to Christ and his Mother Mary.  It is as Christ says in the Bible (paraphrasing) when the demon is cast out he goes around in arid places looking for a new place to stay, but not finding it he goes back to the soul he evacuated and finds it swept clean and it order, but no one (namely the Holy Spirit) occupying the soul.  So he goes and finds some other demons to dwell in the soul with him and the state of the soul was worse than the first.  This is exactly what happen in some of our countries we have been left by the Holy Spirit and without God dwelling there anymore the demons have found a home and now our state is worse than if we never knew God at all.  Sad times ahead…

If you think this sort of thing should be ignored as the work of someone who is deranged, think again.  It is what goes for the consensus view in most secular colleges in the departments of the standard victim groups, i.e., hispanic, women, black, etc.  Such idiocy needs to be exposed for what it is and I applaud Tim for bringing it out into the open.

In response to Keith Jan 22, 2011 10:33 AM,

You completing missed interpreted my comment.  I am in no way giving these person’s a pass on their behaviors by saying I think they are possessed by a demon.  Everyone is responsible for their own behavior regardless of the condition they may be suffering from.  I am not big on excuses at all. 

You are wrong in the instance that you think this sort of thing happens only in secular universities.  It is accepted and encouraged in Roman Catholic Universities as well.  I think Rome recently said that there are only 21 US Roman Catholic Universities left in the US that are in line with the Pope and the Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church and there even levels within that group depending on the given university department. 

However, I think the cause of this type of behavior is not just pure as you say, “idiocy”.  It is motivated by some other force since it is so widely spread and, I believe, is the result of an extreme increase in mortal sin, which casts God out of our lives, and leaves an opening for demons to come and wreck havoc in our lives and the world community at large, as well.  Satan and demons do exist and they are allowed to screw with people who don’t put on the “armor of Christ” or rather frequent the Sacraments regularly (e.g. go to confession, receive Eucharist, and expect being on this webpage you know this or I hope that you would)

I think the mistake us practicing Roman Catholics make is we think that the people who do this sort of thing are in good standing with God and are just people idiots, but I think we should entertain the possibility that they are not and more is at work here besides the misfiring of brain cells.  That is my point in part.  Take it or leave it.  God Bless and have a good weekend.

One sick puppy.  Next, they’ll create a mosaic out of consecrated hosts.

Evil shall be called good and good shall be called evil.

You are spot on under40.  We are dealing with Satanic work here. The Satanic forces are active and evident in very many countries.  One may want to excuse these people as mentally unstable and excuse what they are doing.  That is denying the truth that is staring at us daily in many fronts and forms. The day we agreed human life is expendable, we invited and enthroned Satan on the throne.  And since God no longer has a place in our lives and the sense of sin and conscience has died in our hearts and souls, Satan has taken over.  This is the result of the evil Pope John Paul II warned us about in so many Encyclicals and Pope Benedict XVI is still warning us about.  But do we listen??  Oh no. We say the Catholic Church is backward, archaic and obsolete.  It should be dismantled and The Vatican should be burned down. We forget the minute we kick God our of our lives and become our own gods we have put our finger on the self-destruct button. Can you imagine what would be the reaction if any artist dared to depict Prophet Muhammad the way this artist has done to the Holy Father???  Or if he depicted Obama as Muhammad? The entire Muslim world would declare a fatwa on him and hunt him down until they kill him. Meanwhile, there would be mammoth angry demonstrations in all the Muslim countries. But we Catholics are not outraged by this Sacrilege of depicting Obama as Jesus Christ.  This is a Cardinal Sin and we just keep quiet. Truly as Jesus told St. Faustina “If mankind does not turn to my Divine Mercy they will fall into the hands of my Divine Retribution”.  We have been warned

“Die from its archaic policies”?  What on earth is this person even talking about? 

This “art” is disgusting, but it really doesn’t surprise me that the Pope is villified while Obama is a Christ-figure.  Typical leftist extremism.

In the scriptures we find references to Satan as the “Accuser” - his favorite trick is to accuse those that do the will of God of doing evil; he has been doing this from the very beginning; he accuses God to Eve of a lie to start it all off and he hasn’t quit yet! It’s always the favorite ploy of the evil-minded and the ignorant to accuse those that are doing good of the evil deeds that they themselves are doing; eg. Nero accused christians of burning Rome; the crusades were the fault of the christians etc. Sadly there are folks that buy into it and never check anything out.This makes it doubly important that we always pray for wisdom and knowledge from the Holy Spirit and are guided by the teachings of Christ who is truth itself. Keep up the prayers for this man and he could become a good artist, possibly a great one! God is in the “Miracle” business still!!

Interesting how those who continously blabbler about human rights see no problem with such violent art! Did I write art? I should had written “rubbish.”

Some of the comments here also sound pretty extreme.

“Satan took Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple and showed him the Kingdoms of the world. All these are yours if you fall down and adore me.” Why are we surprised? If it was true in the time of Christ it certainly is true now. In nation after nation abortion is leagalised, marriage of homosexuals made legal, cohabitation the norm. The truth preached by the magisterium of the Catholic Church ridiculed, even in so called Catholic Universities. More Catholics martyred for their faith than at any time before. In the USA less than 25% of baptised Catholics attend Sunday Mass.

Unless those who are “faithful” fast and pray the reign of Satan will continue to grow and prosper.

Gil Vicente and Peter Alexander Por have it all wrong and backwards.  It isn’t president Obama who is nailed to the cross…it is Jesus Christ and His vicar, Pope Benedict XVI who is nailed to the cross! I think it was Isaiah who said, “woe to those who call evil good and good evil.”  May God have mercy on these two who have obviously been duped by Satan—the “Father of Lies!”  Please God, protect our Holy Father and strengthen him in the face of his enemies and persecutors and may these two talented people repent and come to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and Lord and may they also take responsibility for their horrid depictions of our Holy Father.  I suggest we all pray for their deliverance, conversion and public recanting of their evil deeds.

Is anyone really shocked by this? These creations? C’mon its hardly highly original; rather ordinary i’d say. He’s so lacking in creativity he has to use christian cross to get any attention. Obviously the cross still has some power in his mind. It could be viewed as a evangelism, Obama is no Christ and and probably wouldn’t appreciate the comparison. Juvenile and cack-handed. Inconsequential. The cross is still powerful even to the Godless.

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.” (Jn 15:18) What these “artists” and other extremists are doing is unwittingly affirming the reality of Christ’s presence in the Church. They spew hatred toward the Church and the Holy Father because in them they recognize the power of Christ. Unfortunately for their cause, but fortunately for the Church, they just do not “get” Christianity. They think if they attack the Church, she will fall. That is the logic of their simple, Godless world. However, throughout her history the Church, the Bride of Christ, has been at her weakest when she has few opponents, and strongest when she is under attack. What these poor sods do not understand is that they could do more harm to the Church by ignoring her. In attacking her, they make her stronger. We must not give into the temptation of hating those who hate the Church. We are supposed to love our enemies and pray for those who wish us harm. St. Paul himself persecuted the Church until his conversion. These people who hate the Church are still sons and daughters of God, Who loves them even as they reject Him. Yes, they must be opposed, but if we fight them without love for them and prayer for the salvation of their souls, it seems to me that we are not acting as Christians.

To Teresa Rose: Art is meant to convey a message which these anti-Pope artists are conveying quite efficiently although the message is diabolical and offensive to all Godly people who love Christ and His Church. Regarding the “target” on Palin’s map: it is just like the “target” on other politicians’ maps (Democrats as well) conveying that these are persons being “targeted” for political defeat.  The left has continued to used this symbol after the Arizona tragedy so it is interesting that you associate the target symbol with only a prominent conservative. You can tell a lot about a person by the questions they ask. This is very true of you, Teresa Rose.

To Mary Sallerrace rebutting Teresa Rose: Where are YOU coming from? The original article shows a little bit of the devil’s attack on what is Holy in God’s sight and how he (satan) uplifts what is ugly and evil as something good, which as the Holy Bible tells us, is a sign of the end-times. God will not be mocked and not only will the ones that bring this type of hatred will be punished, but also those that condone it. May God have mercy on us. +JMJ+

“A Toronto exhibit opening Feb. 5 at the Bezpala Brown Gallery, will feature a piece of art by Peter Alexander Por depicting a portrait of Pope Benedict XVI riddled with bullet holes.

A culture capable of admiring Andres Serrano for his crucifix in urine, or Chris Ofili for his elephant dung “picture” of the Mother of God, is not going to have a problem with that “picture” of the Pope. Just recently in Scotland there was an exhibition featuring a copy of the Bible, which people were encouraged to defaced and scrawl on. There were Protestants, but nothing happened. Not all these exhibitions of childish (that is deeply insulting to children, so, of grown-up)  barbarism, are to be found in the US.

If these clowns put up their own dull work it would go unnoticed. Instead they do something hateful for the attention. Nobody will ever remember them in a few years. No talent seeks the sensational—to be heard from like the child that throws a tantrum to get his way.

From working in an art gallery, I know that this is entirely about attention seeking, as Patt wrote above. The problem for us as Catholics is that we must protest this pseudo art and reject it as morally despicable and offensive, but our attention DOES reward them as they hoped. It’s a troubling problem…

@EK Gaetan

There is hope. As one who has studied art history (under the instruction of good devout Catholics) it is possible that what they say their art is about will NOT be how history records it. Often, the artists we (with reason) admire today were loathed and reviled in their own day. The talentless hacks who were paraded and praised by the spirit of the age had their works recorded for posterity. Today their frames sit in the storage rooms of museums, unobserved save those who have to dust back there.

One of the few benefits of studying art criticism is knowing that no artist, nor art critic can dictate the meaning of a given work to the viewer.

If I see an old man riddled with bullets, lovingly portrayed in oils, My visceral reaction is to suggest that the man who did it was pathological. Even if he suggests that this old man somehow killed millions of people.  Then I’d be tempted
to ask… when? Where? How? Funny how no body remembers that Pope Benedict
faced down the Nazis at a teenager by writing a paper debunking “race science”!
Does this madman think somehow that his paper upset Hitler so much that it caused him to kill Jews?  Even if this preposterous causation were correct, Young Ratzinger would not be responsible for Hitler’s actions. 

Speaking of Hitler and people who were actually murdering people…

Max Earnst was a radical dadaist/surrealist. This movement came out of the First World War. They *pioneered* art-for-shock-value. He did not draw pictures of a murdered Hitler, even though his friends and family were literally being imprisoned and mass-murdered by the state. What he did draw was a murder machine, with Hitler’s head on top, the blades of the machine devouring the very society that the machine was built from. He had something to say and spoke clearly.

All this “riddled with bullets” says, is “I am upset and I want to kill you”  with
very little information about anything.  He doesn’t have much to say, and clearly
doesn’t have much skill in explaining himself.  Sad for him, and his disordered ideas clearly come from blaming somebody acceptable to his ideology for the world’s problems. Why not blame those who are always first on the ground trying to help?

Certainly,what we do might encourage the disordered and broken.

All we can do is pray for the artists, speak to our consciences, and know that
God’s Justice will ultimately prevail.  Even better, I think this is a call to arms for Catholic artists to speak lovingly, and clearly to an age which needs true Passion and Beauty to bring God’s love to even the dissolute nihilists who populate today’s art scene.  Art with beauty and meaning would be positively counter-cultural!

I emailed the gallery expressing my protest. AM probably feeding their need to be noticed, i suspect sales have been down. the reaction is what they want , so what good i have done is questionable, but i will say a prayer for the artist and the gallery, and of course for the HOly Father.

For the historically minded a similar demonic avalanche of anti-Catholic “Art” and propaganda was initiated in Germany in the 1930’s directed by the Minister of Propaganda Goebbels. Like Sandra Fluke Mr. Goebbels was educated by Jesuits who believed that a single page list of 5 non negotiable issues would mislead and confuse German voters while a 45 page Faithful voter guide helping German voters understand that Herr Hitler was creating jobs and building a social safety net for 99% of the “Volk” would not. [They even got the promise of Porsche “Volks"wagons just as we get the promise of Chevy “Volts"wagons.] History does not repeat itself but it does have echoes, so as part of Our current Kulturkampf being peddled daily by the “Progressives” inside and outside of the Church I am eagerly awaiting the opportunity to view the new “Murder the Pope and Denigrate the Church” exhibitions at “forward-thinking” and diverse “Art” galleries in Georgetown and Notre Dame. I am eagerly waiting to read their “erudite” reviews praising these artists for their “international focus” and initiative in bringing important topics to the fore in the new dynamic contemporary “Art” scene. Lest we forget there were a handful of Bishops who raised there arms in the Nazi salute ... are you hearing any of this Bishop Stephen Blaire, chairman of the USCCB’ Committee on “Domestic Justice and Social Development”???