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A midtown hotel got an earful from the Catholic Church this week when the contents of a planned art exhibit became public. Artist Cosimo Cavallaro was scheduled to display his piece "My Sweet Lord" at the Roger Smith Hotel on 47th St. and Lexington Avenue before New York's archbishop objected. The sculpture was a six-foot-tall representation of a naked Jesus, made out of chocolate. The Catholic League's President, Bill Donohue, is not a fan of edible iconography:
The Catholic League had said it was highly offensive to display a sculpture of Jesus with "his genitals exposed" and invite the public to eat it.
"The Roger Smith Hotel will rue the day it sought to declare war on Christian sensibilities," said Donahue.The hotel canceled the exhibition.
And, based on yesterday's reader poll:
- 15% of our readers think the chocolate Jesus is sacrilege
- 17% wonder why not an empty chair for Elijah while Cavallaro's at it
- 26% wonder when the chocolate creche and chocolate Baby Jesus are coming
- And 42% want your very own 6-foot chocolate Jesus for Easter. But we're not sure the Easter Bunny can carry so many!
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Whew, that's a relief. Now Bill and Cardinal Egan can go back to spending Holy Week doing what the leaders of my Church do best... picking on gay people.
He should have gone all the way and made it out of bittersweet dark chocolate...
I wonder if we'd have this nonsense if it was made out of white chocolate?
Where's Tom Waits when you need him?
This is bad news. Now they'll have to cancel the Strawberry Fluff Mohammed they had planned for Ramadan.
What a shame. This is a great public art idea: controversial, timely, great for conversation, edible, CHOCOLATE. Shame on the hotel for caving in to the demands of such a dated and irrelevant organization as the catholic church.
Cavallaro should do different sculpture instead of a priest forcing a little boy to blow him.
As a Catholic I remember being furious about the exhibit a few years ago with presented the Virgin Mary covered with a load of dung. That was sacrilege.
This sculpture, on the other hand, I think is quite sweet (pun intened). I suppose he could have covered the statue with a loin cloth, but other than that I can see plenty of positive symbolism in it.
I mean consumption of the body and blood of Christ in the sacrament of the Eucharist is integral the Catholic faith. If that ignoramus Bill Donahue wants to interpret the sculpture in a negative light, thats his own damn fault.
How is a chocolate Jesus "timely"? Make fun of priests all you want but Chocolate Jesus is pretty tacky, especially in a hotel lobby. Management should have been more worried about offending guests. It's really a bad business decision more than anything else.
Bill Donohue (aka the Roman Catholic Al Sharpton) is the only thing offensive in this whole debacle.
I am an Episcoplalian (aka Catholics that think) and feel that a 6 foot naked chocolate Jesus could have been turned into a teaching moment.
Strange that a week or two ago - when we were debating the electronic locks at Peter Cooper Village and how they interfered with the ultra Jews' way of life - people seemed compassionate.
But when it comes to Catholics, it's okay to flout their religious beliefs publicly.
I am personally strongly anti-religion, but I see how Donahue feels that Catholics in particular are targeted here. Meaning: it's somehow "okay" to mock Jesus. Watch Comedy Central for more than 5 minutes and you'll know what I mean.
We don't make fun of Mohammed in this country in mainstream entertainment, and we don't poke fun at backwards orthodox Jews either.
All joking and religious rhetoric aside, the decision to cave on the part of the Roger Smith Hotel is disappointing. So many people have become frightened children, unwilling to deal with or accept anything controversial or offensive.
Don't like it - FUCK IT. Don't pay it no mind.
C'mon folks.
"decision to cave on the part of the Roger Smith Hotel is disappointing." How is it disappointing? I wouldn't want to walk into a hotel lobby and be confronted with what really just looks like a naked brown cadaver with his arms outstretched. Then being told it is made of chocolate and is edible. What next? Serving a cadaver made from turkey for Thanksgiving?
Okay... being a recovering Catholic, I have some questions...
If the bible says that JC was born when the olive trees were in bloom, why is the holiday celebrated specifically on December 25th (roughly coinciding with the ancient 'rebirth of the Sun celebrations'), but Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first Full Moon after the Spring Equinox? Sounds like a Lunar holiday to me. Rome could agree on a birthday but not a deathday?
Puhleeze.
Religions need to back up and take a look at themselves and chill the fuck out.
Why do some Catholics think they own Jesus?
TOby's comment about Donohue is dead on. This guy is always popping up when somebody needs to be offended by something irrelevant.
Jesus was tortured and crucified. Catholics even believe he visited hell for a while (~1,974 years ago today, I think). Do you think he cares if people are making chocolate replicas of him?
Come on, fellow Catholics. Try to see the forest and not the trees here, and move on.
Just an FYI, The Catholic League and It's president, Bill Donohue, is NOT the Church.
As for the offense, while I think it's in poor taste, I bet the public attention and outrage is exactly what Cosimo Cavallaro was looking for.
Naked Jesuses have been around since medieval times. Displaying his genitalia was proof of the humanity of the man, not something embarrassing. They are simply no longer displayed because of modern prudishness.
As for the whole respect thing, I might point out that if Catholics feel free to display ANY images of Jesus (graven images, clearly forbidden in the Bible), they're just as "wrong" as someone displaying a chocolate one. So before they object to that chocolate Jesus, maybe they should object to their own flouting of their own religion? (I'm not the first to point this out -- I believe Martin Luther said something about it, a couple centuries ago, thus paving the way for Protestantism -- for people protesting against what they saw as the degeneration of Christianity in the hands of the Catholic Church). (Not that the Protestants were any fun, either. You'll notice their churches are not very pretty WITHOUT all those graven images!)
I personally am not religious at all, and don't really care -- I just don't like people getting on their high horses when they've got their own faults staring everyone in the face.
"Mmmm... sacrilicious."
- Homer Simpson
Why is everyone so happy about this pieces of sh-t passed off as art that are just attempts to piss people of, and mock Jesus?
Would you be supportive of a Chocolate Muhammad?
What about a big chocolate Hitler in a Jewish Temple?
Maybe a chocolate Twin towers getting hit by a chocolate plane?
This hack of an artist is a moron
Other than the display, were people really encouraged to eat the chocolate?
I heard that, but can't find a link...
Your own chocolate Jesus
Not a tiger or a bear
Or even a hare
Your own chocolate Jesus
A Hershey bar can never compare
To try is unfair
The part I don't get is why the Catholic League is screaming that the artist is prejudiced against Catholics. He was raised Catholic. He is offering his interpretation of Jesus which is informed by his Catholic upbringing. It might be bad art, or a faulty interpretation, or even in bad taste but it is not hate speech.
We are now being censored by the catholic church. Great. How much longer till our government starts doing it?
Cavallaro should do different sculpture instead of a priest forcing a little boy to blow him.
I'd like to see this rendered in pink-sugared marshmallow Peep material!
"As a Catholic I remember being furious about the exhibit a few years ago with presented the Virgin Mary covered with a load of dung. That was sacrilege."
No it wasn't. It was a painting called Virgin Mary with some dung formed to make a breast, not "covered with a load" of dung. That artist used elephant dung in a lot of his work, and it did not represent "shit" or anything bad. Why can't people just look up things and read about them? Learning is fun!
Free speecn =/= free of offense. If the Catholic League wants to live in a theocracy, they can hike their little cabooses over to Vatican City.
> What about a big chocolate Hitler in a Jewish Temple? >
#17 - What? How is that similar to a Jesus? Hitler in a temple by itself is it's own issue, what does the chocolate have to do with that?
Make a point that makes sense.
@ Tucker
Right- and a chocolate Jesus is supposed to make sense somehow?
This is just a meaningless attmept to piss of and disrespect christians.
Its BS like this why the public has little respect for art, and why public schools are getting rid of their art programs- thanks for your contribution dumbass
Either way, everybody is a tight-ass. We as people take ourselves way too seriously. We need to just take a step back, calm the f down, and laugh at ourselves a little. Life can be serious, but it really isn't THAT serious in the end.
glad the taliban have taken over the cathedrals. when do they start asking for the head of this artist..
i love these incidents... they just illustrate the sameness of all religious nuts. funny nuts.
The Catholic League complained and the hotel decided it wasn't worth the controversy to put it up. I don't see why this is in any way Taliban-esque or censorship. The hotel could easily have put up a chocolate Jesus entitled "My Sweet Lord" during Holy Week and taken the heat, but chose not to.
Surely, the artist knew that there'd be controversy about this, especially if he's Catholic himself. It's the most solemn, important week on the Catholic calendar. I know it's not fashionable to be respectful of people's religion, but the outcry isn't all that unreasonable considering what time of year it is.