Dear all,

This just went up on SSPX.org; I hope that everyone will consider signing the petition, which is easy to do. The SSPX's French District has even created an "English" (gasp!) webpage for this important Catholic action!

PS: For those who do not understand French, there are 2 fields for your name:

Nom: last name
Prénom: first name

The drop-down box is for your age.

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Join the SSPX’s French District in opposing anti-Christian exhibit

Many traditional Catholic Americans will remember the blasphemous “Piss Christ” that was displayed in various art exhibits throughout the United States starting in 1989. Protests and prayer rallies were organized throughout the United States against the outrageous anti-Christian “work of art”, many by the SSPX’s own chapels.

This disgusting anti-Christian exhibit has recently resurfaced, this time in France, where the SSPX’s French District is organizing a protest against it. Please join the reaction against this blasphemy to Our Lord Jesus Christ by prayer and signing the petition cited below.

Piss Christ is a 1987 picture by artist and photographer Andres Serrano. It depicts a small plastic crucifix submerged in a glass of the artist's urine.  The piece was a winner of the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art's "Awards in the Visual Arts" competition,1 which is sponsored in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, a United States government agency that offers support and funding for artistic projects.

The photograph is of a small plastic crucifix submerged in a glass of what appears to be a yellow liquid. The artist has described the substance as being his own urine.2,3

The piece caused a scandal when it was exhibited in 1989, outraging popular figures such as United States’ Senators Al D'Amato and Jesse Helms, that Serrano received $15,000 for the work, part of it from the taxpayer-funded National Endowment for the Arts.

Piss Christ has been displayed since the beginning of April at the art gallery “Collection Lambert” in Avignon, the French City of the Popes.

The exhibit is supported by the LVMH Group (Dior, Guerlain, Moët, Hennessy). The local authorities dismissed the complaints on the ground that the gallery is privately run. However, “Collection Lambert” is partially funded by Avignon taxpayers money.

The Society of St. Pius X has organized Ways of the Cross in reparation in the streets of Avignon. A protest will take place on April 16, 2011. French Bishops are being daily challenged by SSPX to take public position against this blasphemy. Bishop Cattenoz of Avignon refused to sue the “Collection Lambert” and wishes dialogue with the “author”!

Agrif, a French Lay association, is currently suing the “Collection Lambert”.

Civitas Institute, a Catholic action movement supported by SSPX is offering a petition of protest for anyone to sign. Please read and sign the petition (http://www.defendonslecrucifix.org/?en=). [this link will take you to an English-version of the French website: www.defendonslecrucifix.org].
 

Footnotes

1 "NEA's Cloudy Future", Jennifer Johnson. Albion Monitor (1998-04-09).

2 Understanding Society, Culture, and Television, Paul Monaco (Praeger, 2000), p. 100.

3 Art in The Social Order: The Making of the Modern Conception of Art, Preben Mortensen (SUNY Press, 1997), p. 13.