BROOKLYN, N.Y.—A crowd of 400 Catholics alternated between praying to the Blessed Virgin Mary and protesting the desecrated portrait of her on display inside the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

“I'm here because it makes me angry that they're disgracing my mother this way,” Patrick Gallic, 17, of Warren, N.J., told the Register. “Bashing Catholics is not art.”

“We're outraged that someone would put dung on a portrait of the Blessed Virgin Mary,” Margaret Fogarty, of Bronx, N.Y., told the Register.

The contentious picture, created by Chris Ofili, shows the Virgin Mary sprinkled with elephant dung and surrounded by pornographic pictures. It's part of an exhibit called “Sensation” that opened on Oct. 2.

“And this is art?” asked Fogarty. “These people have to be sick.”

Using a megaphone to broadcast their message to hundreds of people lined outside the museum, the protesters were noisy but peaceful.

“You talk about tolerance, acceptance and compassion,” Michael Mangan, of St. Michael's World Apostate, shouted towards the Museum. “Where is it for the Blessed Mother? Where is it for Christian Catholics?”

In addition to their disgust over the portrait, the protesters were outraged over the use of taxpayer dollars that went to finance the exhibit, which will be on display until Jan. 9.

“Let them do this with private funds,” said William Donohue, president of the Catholic League, and leader of the protest. “They don't have to do it on welfare from us.”

New York City Mayor Rudy Guiliani moved recently to withhold $7.2 million in city funding from the museum. The city and the museum have since sued each other, with the museum even listing Guiliani as a defendant in its suit.

Guiliani clearly was a crowd favorite, though he did not appear at the protest himself.

“Rudy Guiliani, God Bless You,” Michael Mangan, of St. Michael's World Apostolate, shouted to the crowd. “The Lord will remember you for honoring our mother.”

Norman Seigel, president of the New York Civil Liberties Union was on hand to offer his views to the hordes of journalists covering the protest.

“Once you decide as a nation to fund the arts,” Siegel told the Register, “if you decide to defund the arts and the courts say that it was done because it was unpopular, that's unconstitutional.”

It was clear that Brooklyn's Congressman disagreed with that sentiment.

“Nowhere in the Constitution does it say that we have to subsidize art that offended our religion or any religion,” Rep. Vito Fossella, shouted to the crowd.

The museum warned patrons that the exhibit may be offensive and encouraged people to bring vomit bags, which the Catholic League supplied to over 500 people outside the Museum.

Catholics were not the only protesters, however. A dozen animal-rights activists objected to the exhibit as well, because of one piece of “art” made from sliced pigs.

“The only thing [Catholics] care about is an icon,” Michael Norcia told the Register. “I think they're oblivious to the more important issue,” which is cruelty to animals, Norcia said. “It's like talking about acne when you have terminal cancer.”

Only about six people protested on behalf of the Museum, accusing the Catholics of censorship. One protester's sign asked, “Is book burning next?” One man had cut out a large cardboard portrait of a hand with a middle finger raised. The man next to him held a sign that asked, “Find this offensive?”

The protester that received the most media attention, though, was neither a Catholic nor a vegetarian, but an anti-Guiliani protester. Holding two large paintings mocking the mayor, Robert Lederman shouted to journalists, asking to be interviewed.

Lederman, who claimed to be an artist, told the Register that elephant dung is considered sacred in Africa. Lederman also said the Catholics protesters do not understand the painting done by Chris Ofili, who is British. “It's a matter of cultural chauvinism,” Lederman said, referring to the Catholics.

John Dunleavy, of Bronx, couldn't disagree more. “If it was a Star of David with a swastika on it,” Dunleavy told the Register, “it certainly wouldn't be shown as art.”

One art patron, after leaving the Museum, mocked a nun outside the museum for refusing to see the exhibit, but was chastised by her friend. “Don't try reason with them,” he told her. “They're morons.”

Despite such hostility, the sponsors of the protesters deemed it a success.

“I'm very pleased that there's such a diverse crowd,” Donohue told the Register. “We're sending an unmistakable message that public funds should not be used to finance private hate speech.”