Vatican hates #UnHate
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God is love, I dare say.
But what a mischievous devil love is.- Samuel Butler (1835-1902)
The Vatican has successfully managed to force Benetton to withdraw one of its UnHate campaign posters.
The image (don’t worry, interfaith dialogue-ophobes, it’s digitally manipulated) depicts ex-Cardinal Josef Ratzinger/current Pope Benedict XVI locking his Roman Catholic lips with Muslim cleric, the grand sheikh, Mohammed Ahmed al-Tayeb, of al-Azhar mosque in Cairo.
But don’t worry, here you can see the image in all its glory:
Reminiscent of the iconic Cold War image of Erich Honecker and Leonid Brezhnev – which was real, rather than digitally imagined by marketers – what’s so really wrong with the image?
Maybe the image coincides a little too much with the news of a gathering of Egypt’s LGBT community at Tahrir Square in Cairo. Let’s not forget that Pope Benedict (the artist formally known as Ratzinger) is the author of the 1986 “Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexuals”, which included:
It is deplorable that homosexual persons have been and are the object of violent malice in speech or in action. Such treatment deserves condemnation from the church’s pastors wherever it occurs. It reveals a kind of disregard for others which endangers the most fundamental principles of a healthy society. The intrinsic dignity of each person must always be respected in word, in action and in law.
But the proper reaction to crimes committed against homosexual persons should not be to claim that the homosexual condition is not disordered. When such a claim is made and when homosexual activity is consequently condoned, or when civil legislation is introduced to protect behavior to which no one has any conceivable right, neither the church nor society at large should be surprised when other distorted notions and practices gain ground, and irrational and violent reactions increase (No. 10).
What is at all costs to be avoided is the unfounded and demeaning assumption that the sexual behavior of homosexual persons is always and totally compulsive and therefore inculpable. What is essential is that the fundamental liberty which characterizes the human person and gives him his dignity be recognized as belonging to the homosexual person as well (No. 11)
(Link)
So if love – or, UnHate – is so terribly objectionable, I suppose this is what we’re left with. How very Christian.
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While I obviously am appalled by the Church’s attitudes to and actions against homosexuality, I’m not sure quite where I stand on this issue. I mean, Benetton’s intention was clearly to shock and they achieved that. It seems strange to then express outrage that the Church objected to an ad that was clearly intended to be objectionable to the Church.
Oliviero Toscani understood that the only way to reach the masses today in the visual arts is through advertising. Benetton, although pretty hypocritical to sack him I thought, have continued his tradition of using visual messages in their ads rather than some boring picture of clothes.
Its worth noting that the ads that Toscani did for Benetton never actually increased the sales of their products, in fact many of their franchise stores in America were closed down in protest, yet they have continued the tradition of ‘ads’ that have a message.
The Church response is laughable simply because they have played into Benettons hands by creating more controversy (and more publicity) that a few billboards ever could. Its also stupid, with their whole, apparent, doctrine revolving around love, how much they haven’t listened to the message of the ad.
I have to think if a poster was published of myself kissing a person I absolutely hate (probably not my ex due to the exact nature of this campaign!) what would my reaction be, and quite honestly I think I would consider the message. A poster like that would make me think a lot more than a Catholic sermon in the middle of a boring mass about ‘forgiving thine enemy’.
[...] Vatican hates #UnHate The Vatican has successfully managed to force Benetton to withdraw one of its UnHate campaign posters. The image depicts Pope Benedict XVI locking lips with the grand sheikh, Mohammed Ahmed al-Tayeb, of al-Azhar mosque in Cairo. But don’t worry, here you can see the image in all its glory. [...]
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