Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher noted the
producers of a homosexual performance staged inside a former Catholic
church on Kent Street deliberately mocked the Catholic faith.
Writing
in CatholicWeekly.com.au on July 28, a week after hundreds of Catholics
gathered outside the venue to pray the Rosary, Archbishop Fisher
rejected claims that the show was simply artistic expression.
The
performances were "not neutral expressions of art" but "a deliberate
appropriation, sexualisation, and denigration of symbols and rituals
specific and sacred to the Catholic faith."
The archbishop cited
promotional images showing a pig offering McDonald's fries as the "Body
of Christ," male performers dressed as nuns, and events titled "Sunday
Mess" and "Unholy Confessions." He considered claims - that the
production was not intended to mock Catholics - were "unpersuasive."
"For
Catholics, the Eucharist is not a cultural motif available for parody,"
Fisher wrote. "It is the sacrament at the heart of our worship." He
added that "religious habits are not costumes" and "the crucifix is not a
prop."
Archbishop Fisher also rejected accusations that Catholic opposition to the performances amounted to an attack on homosexuals.
He
praised Catholics who gathered outside the venue to pray peacefully.
According to the organizers, more than 1,000 people participated in the
Rosary demonstration in reparation for the blasphemy.
Monsignor
Fisher also criticized the A$100,000 Create NSW grant awarded to the
production and welcomed Premier Chris Minns' decision to review the
funding.
He questioned whether public officials would respond
similarly if another religion's sacred rites had been "sexualised and
parodied with public funding."
Archbishop Fisher concluded that
"anti-Catholic prejudice has been treated as a comparatively acceptable
form of intolerance". Catholics were entitled to ask that their beliefs
not be "singled out for taxpayer-funded ridicule" or their peaceful
objections "misrepresented as hatred."
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