Novus Ordo Watch
Just when you thought you’d seen it all…
In the town of Zweibrücken, Germany, there is an “altar” decorated with the head of a two-horned beast. It was the Italian blog Messa in Latinothat first drew attention to this monstrosity:
This blasphemous eyesore is the work of a Dominican sister named Burghildis Roth (1932-1987). The cover of a book on 25 of her sculptures gives a hint as to what other beauties she must have produced before God called her to render an account.
According to the parish’s web site, the “altar” is square in shape and displays a theme from the Apocalypse of St. John (a.k.a. the Book of Revelation) on each of its four sides. The side facing east, shown above, supposedly depicts “the lamb as a symbol of Christ” (das Lamm als Symbol Christi). While one can certainly agree that the image looks apocalyptic, it would probably be the first time in Catholic art that the Lamb of God has been displayed with horns.
Although sheep can indeed have horns, horns are typically associated with goats and specifically with Satan, not only in Christian art but also in the occult. The devil is often displayed with the head (and sometimes the foot) of a goat, as, for example, in the horrific images of the Baphomet (Sabbatic Goat) and the goat pentagram. The pagan god Pan, too, is usually portrayed as having horns and is featured
In the New Testament, the metaphor of sheep is typically used to describe the faithful of Christ (with Christ Himself being the Shepherd; see Jn 10:11-16,27), whereas that of goat is reserved for the reprobate (whence also the use of the expression scapegoat; cf. Lev 16:20-21):
And all nations shall be gathered together before [God], and he shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left. Then shall the king say to them that shall be on his right hand: Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world…. Then he shall say to them also that shall be on his left hand: Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels.(Mt 25:32-34,41)
Christ Himself is, of course, the Lamb of God (see Jn 1:29; cf. Is 53:7; Acts 8:32), whereas Satan himself is the quintessential goat, the first and ultimate enemy of God, the “prince of this world” (Jn 12:31).
It will not do, as the parish of Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche (Holy Cross Church) in Zweibrücken maintains, that the two-horned beast is Christ the Lamb of the Apocalypse, for that Lamb is described as having seven (obviously figurative) horns, not merely two:
And I saw: and behold in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the ancients, a Lamb standing as it were slain, having seven horns and seven eyes: which are the seven Spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth.(Apoc 5:6)