Lourdes and the frog
August 29th 2008 08:15
The Pope has been in the news twice this week in less than totally favourable light.
First, if you are considering visiting Lourdes next month, don't. This shrine to the Madonna, where she appeared to a peasant girl, Bernadette Soubirous, 150 years ago, is crowded at the best of times. But it will be entirely unapproachable in mid-September when Pope Benedict pops in.
Which leads us to the news item: if you are a journalist travelling with the Pope to Lourdes on the papal plane, and if you purchase any of the revered Lourdes water while you are there, and if you are planning on the return journey to carry it in your hand luggage, don't.
According to a warning issued by the Vatican, do this and your precious water may be confiscated. Not by the Vatican, but by airport security people enforcing measures limiting liquids allowed in carry-on baggage which have been in effect since 2006 when a plot to bring down planes with liquid explosives was discovered.
So the Vatican "warning", which was carried by Reuters and other news agencies, was a friendly one. This may involve the Madonna, the Pope and perhaps the holiest water on the planet, they said, but it's out of our control.
And then yesterday came the news that a museum in the northern Italian town of Bolzano has refused a request by Pope Benedict to remove an exhibit.
The exhibit, pictured above, is a modern art sculpture by the late German artist Martin Kippenberger portraying a crucified green frog holding a beer mug and an egg. Kippenberger, who died in 1997, is distinguished, having been exhibited in London's Tate Modern and the Saatchi Gallery, and at the Venice Biennale.
However, Franz Pahl, president of the Bolzano regional government, opposed the sculpture. Indeed, he was so outraged by it that he went on a hunger strike to demand its removal, and as a consequence ended up in hospital.
The Vatican wrote a letter in the Pope's name supporting Pahl. The museum refused to remove the exhibit, claiming it was an important work of art, a "self-portrait illustrating human angst".
The Vatican has had better weeks.
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