http://www.cathtelecom.com/news/104/09.php

US Archbishop objects to artwork depicting Mary in floral bikini

Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan of Santa Fe has protested against the "trashing of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe" in a photo collage that depicts her dressed in a bikini made of roses and held up by a bare-breasted angel.

"Such an image has no place in a tax-supported public museum," he said. The digital photo image, titled "Our Lady," was created by 33-year-old California artist Alma Lopez.

It is part of an exhibit, "Cyber Arte: Where Tradition Meets Technology," that recently opened at Santa Fe's state-funded Museum of International Folk Art.

 

"To depict the Virgin Mary in a floral bikini held aloft by a bare-breasted angel is to be insulting, even sacrilegious, to the many thousands of New Mexicans who have deep religious devotion to Guadalupe," Archbishop Sheehan said last week.

CNS 3-Apr-01