Holy masturbating Christ!
A Spanish official has filed a suit against a photographer, his publishers, and the Minister of Culture of the region of Extremadura for offending religious feelings.
Tomás Moro, president of the Legal Centre in Extremadura, Javier Perez-Roldán, president of the Centro Jurídico Tomás Moro, brought the charges because of a book of photographs depicting Christian religious figures in various states of undress and arousal (scroll down for more NSFW images). The photos include a masturbating Jesus, a depiction of the Annunciation with a naked Mary being approached by a visibly-excited Angel Gabriel, and, bizarrely, a turd hovering above a chalice.
The photographer, José Antonio Moreno, said they were meant to be critical of the church but denies they were pornographic. However, as he is being done for blasphemy, not pornography, his defence seems moot.
Perez-Roldán has cited the Spanish Constitution and the European Declaration of Human Rights in his prosecution. His argument relies on article 525.1 of the penal code which apparently states that religion is an integral part of being human and as such is protected by the Constitution. He also shows a talent for idiotic hyperbole:
Those responsible for these books demonstrate and intolerance which we all hoped had disappeared and which led Europe, between the years 1939-1945, to the worst atrocities in memory.
He mentioned the Nazis! That means he loses.
UPDATE (19 March): Richard of Bartholomew’s Notes corrects an embarrassing mistake: see strike-though above – the Centro Jurídico is named after Tomás Moro (Thomas More). He also points out the the current president Javier Perez-Roldán, who is filing the suit, has some previous censorship form. He tried to have a comedian named Leo Bassi imprisoned for an anti-religious play named “Revelation” last year. This guy does appear to be the Catholic equivalent of Stephen Green. Thanks Richard – my Spanish clearly isn’t as good as I thought it was!
We should put Dog Shit into some of those. Photoshop anyone?
No wait – he’s already there! That’s him hovering over the chalice!
Mentioning the Nazis – otherwise known as “Reductio ad Hitlerum”. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reductio_ad_Hitlerum
I’m afraid there’s a bit of confusion here: it’s actually an organisation named the “Centro JurÃdico Tomás Moro” (named after Thomas More), not the “Centro JurÃdico” run by a guy named Tomás Moro. The president is Javier Perez-Roldán. Last year he tried to have a comedian named Leo Bassi imprisoned for an anti-religious play named “Revelation”. More here. He doesn’t appear to a judge, just someone who like to file lawsuits. Perhaps he should be known as Javier “Mierda de Perro” Perez-Roldán
[…] sounds like it could be the work (scroll down for NSFW images) of José Antonio Moreno, who got in trouble in Spain earlier this year. Monitor @ 9:18 […]
You know, if I was a Spanish Catholic extremist, I’d be very, very wary about mentioning Hitler, given his support for Franco.
[…] Anti-Religious Photographs Posted on March 19, 2007 by Richard Bartholomew MediaWatchWatch draws attention to lawsuit in Spain over a book of anti-religious photographs …depicting Christian religious […]