This just in:
Ecumenical News International
By Jonathan Luxmoore
Warsaw, 17 June (ENI)--Roman Catholics in Poland have formed a protest committee in a bid to stop a concert in Warsaw by the U.S. singer Madonna on the day that the Catholic Church worldwide celebrates the assumption into heaven of Mary, the mother of Jesus.
"To make money by holding a concert on such a day by a singer with such a name is ethically dubious," said Grzegorz Kalwarczyk, chancellor of the Warsaw archdiocese. "Although it will probably go ahead, it is not surprising that people are voicing dissatisfaction, and protesting."
The priest was reacting to plans for the concert at the capital's
Bemowo airport on the 15 August feast day, which is a public holiday in
Poland. The word, "Madonna", from the Italian meaning "my lady", is a
traditional way of referring to Mary, the mother of Jesus. The Catholic
Church teaches that at the end of her life Mary, unlike other people,
was taken up - or assumed - body and soul into heaven.
Kalwarczyk said his office had received numerous telephone calls from Catholics worried about the concert, which will form part of Madonna's 15-country "Sticky and Sweet Tour", opening in London on 4 July. "It may be a deliberate provocation, or just a case of thoughtlessness. It is hard to say," Kalwarczyk told Ecumenical News International.
A senior lay Roman Catholic, Krzysztof Zagozda, who is a spokesperson for Poland's Catholic Unum Principium association, said the newly formed protest committee would "do everything" to prevent the performance.
"We do not believe in accidents. Someone has chosen this date deliberately," Zagozda was quoted as saying on the Moje Miasto Web site. "Personally, I do not like Madonna's music or the way she builds her popularity, and we fear there will also be anti-Christian sentiments during the concert."
Fifty-year-old Madonna, who Guinness World Records rates the most successful female recording artist of all time, with 200 million of her albums sold worldwide, has frequently attracted controversy.
In 2006, the Vatican protested when she appeared crucified on a giant cross at Rome's Olympic Centre less than a mile from St Peter's Square.
In April, the director of St Petersburg's Hermitage Museum, Mikhail Piotrovsky, asked the entertainer to "guarantee there will be no blasphemy" during her planned August performance in the Russian city's Dvortsovaya Square.
A Roman Catholic from Poland's Mazowsze regional council, Marian Brudzinski, said he had threatened to sue the organizers for offending his religious feelings, and had asked the Polish Army, which owns Bemowo airport, to withdraw consent for the concert.
Still, the superior of Poland's northern Jesuit region, Dariusz Kowalczyk, said he disagreed with the protests.
"August 15 is not actually a bad day for a concert," the Jesuit priest was quoted as saying by Poland's Dziennik newspaper on 15 June. "I do not see why one cannot go to church first and have fun afterwards". [Reprinted by permission]
Kalwarczyk said his office had received numerous telephone calls from Catholics worried about the concert, which will form part of Madonna's 15-country "Sticky and Sweet Tour", opening in London on 4 July. "It may be a deliberate provocation, or just a case of thoughtlessness. It is hard to say," Kalwarczyk told Ecumenical News International.
A senior lay Roman Catholic, Krzysztof Zagozda, who is a spokesperson for Poland's Catholic Unum Principium association, said the newly formed protest committee would "do everything" to prevent the performance.
"We do not believe in accidents. Someone has chosen this date deliberately," Zagozda was quoted as saying on the Moje Miasto Web site. "Personally, I do not like Madonna's music or the way she builds her popularity, and we fear there will also be anti-Christian sentiments during the concert."
Fifty-year-old Madonna, who Guinness World Records rates the most successful female recording artist of all time, with 200 million of her albums sold worldwide, has frequently attracted controversy.
In 2006, the Vatican protested when she appeared crucified on a giant cross at Rome's Olympic Centre less than a mile from St Peter's Square.
In April, the director of St Petersburg's Hermitage Museum, Mikhail Piotrovsky, asked the entertainer to "guarantee there will be no blasphemy" during her planned August performance in the Russian city's Dvortsovaya Square.
A Roman Catholic from Poland's Mazowsze regional council, Marian Brudzinski, said he had threatened to sue the organizers for offending his religious feelings, and had asked the Polish Army, which owns Bemowo airport, to withdraw consent for the concert.
Still, the superior of Poland's northern Jesuit region, Dariusz Kowalczyk, said he disagreed with the protests.
"August 15 is not actually a bad day for a concert," the Jesuit priest was quoted as saying by Poland's Dziennik newspaper on 15 June. "I do not see why one cannot go to church first and have fun afterwards". [Reprinted by permission]
"'August 15 is not actually a bad day for a concert,' the Jesuit priest was quoted as saying by Poland's Dziennik newspaper on 15 June. 'I do not see why one cannot go to church first and have fun afterwards'".
Jesuit irony?
Posted by: Benighted Savage | June 17, 2009 at 11:45 PM
Jesuit idea of "fun" ??
Posted by: Wolf Paul | June 18, 2009 at 01:36 AM
James V. Schall, Mitch Pacwa, Robert J. Spitzer - all devout and holy SJ's with public voices who defend the Church and her magesterium but you would never learn of it in the secular media. Even an organ calling itself Ecumenical News International goes to the Reeses and Kowalczyks of this world to get the "real" Catholic view of things. Perhaps I shouldn't say "even"; ecumenism has been profaned as much as everything else that is noble.
Posted by: Bill Daugherty | June 18, 2009 at 11:21 AM
Despite Madonna's loathsomeness, it must be noted that Madonna is her real name. The quoted priest seems to be under the impression that is a deliberately blasphemous pseudonym, but it is not.
Posted by: James Kabala | June 18, 2009 at 12:55 PM
For every Schall or Pacwa, there are 10 Jesuits who are heretics or even apostates. I got to the end of the piece and had the immediately thought - "of course it was a Jesuit who offered the dissenting view in favor of fornication and blasphemy. Of course." Despite the existence of individual outstanding Jesuits, the order itself has fallen a long, long way.
Posted by: Steve K. | June 18, 2009 at 01:08 PM
Saint Ignatius of Loyola, ora pro nobis.
Posted by: Steve Nicoloso | June 18, 2009 at 05:01 PM
I thought Madonna was an assumed name. I vaguely remember her name originally being something like Louise.
Posted by: Ranee @ Arabian Knits | August 19, 2009 at 07:50 PM