Anti-Catholicism is an Old Virginia Vintage

November 9th, 1893 — the Richmond Masonic Temple brought in an “ex-Romanist” for a talk.  $0.15 per head, and all about the salacious ongoings of what really happens in a Catholic nunnery.

Miss Shepherd made a good deal of money off her exploits, her fame rising with the publication of several books and pamphlets right up until the mid 1890s, where she petered out and was heard from rarely since.  Sometimes folks just want a good show.

So today we have a similar instance with the Virginia Beach Arts and Humanities Commission.  This time?  The head of a doll and the words “Mystici Corporis Christi” (shorthand for the Catholic Church):

This painting is of a little girl in a First Communion dress at a table loaded with meat. She’s sawing away at a ham inscribed “Mystici Corporis Christi”: the mystical body of Christ. A piece of meat is on the floor and rats are eying it. A bottle of booze is on the table, with a likeness of the Sacred Heart on the label and the word “Jesus.” A bunny is pouring what appears to be blood from a teapot.

To some, this is splendid art. Go figure.

The museum for this piece of “art” is no less than the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art in Virginia Beach, which received a handsome $120,000 grant to show this work off.

…but let’s not call it art, shall we?

Both Ben Loyola and Brian Kirwin (practicing Catholics all) noted the exhibit and fired off a letter with their concerns.  Kirwin abbreviates:

“I don’t want it censored, and never once said ‘take it down,’ ” said Kirwin, who added that he wanted to meet with the director to ask about the process she uses to select exhibits and whether she would be willing to hang a painting that insulted some other religion, like Islam.

I think we all know that answer .

“It looks like anti-Christian bigotry is the only bigotry allowed anymore,” Kirwin said.

Which is precisely the point.  Art is supposed to challenge conventions, but any vulgarian on the street can do that.  There’s a manner and a way art ought to challenge and bring out something better in people — a link between art and beauty that is fundamental, transcendent, and real.  Merely producing emotion?  Sports do that… violence does that… gaining notoriety by abusing the reputation of others — and their faith — does that.

…but don’t call it art.

That’s really what this exhibit is.  Not art, but an attempt to gain notoriety by mocking the faiths of others.  Which is fine, if folks choose to do that with their money… but don’t call it art, and don’t subsidize it with taxpayer-dollars.  At the end of the day, if it was a piece of ham with the words “The Prophet Muhummad, Peace Upon His Name” how long does anyone think the exhibit would last?

How did the story with Miss Shepherd end?  Turns out, she was a Mrs. Shepherd (married twice, living with a third “husband” on the roadshow); a former prostitute who took refuge with the House of the Good Shepherd in Boston as a penitent before falling in with a troupe of anti-Catholic ministers — then cashing in hard.  When the Brady’s refutation was published, Mrs. Shepherd’s story crumbled… as did her notoriety and her income.

Such ends the story of one more person seeking to make a profit off the reputation of others.

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