Thanks to pressure from the Catholic League, Manhattan’s Lab Gallery has removed the 90 Kg chocolate sculpture titled “My Sweet Lord” by artist Cosimo Cavallaro.
The Catholic League purports to be an advocate for civil liberties. Evidently, freedom of expression and freedom of religion aren’t among the liberties it cares about. Three thoughts leap to mind:
1. This incident tells me that ecumenism is strong—people don’t mind being stupid whatever their denomination.
2. People who lack a nuanced theological take on things tend also to lack a nuanced aesthetic take on things.
3. It is a great irony that Catholics are in the vanguard of this protest, given that it was a Catholic theologian, von Balthasar, who was in the vanguard of the lament that beauty is the lost transcendental. For all we know, von Balthasar probably liked chocolate too.
So what’s wrong with a naked chocolate Jesus?