Reuters Faithworld blogger Tom Heneghan just commented to let me know that Cardinal Schönborn has been interviewed about the art scandal I posted on earlier this week:
“The Vienna Cathedral Museum has dedicated a special exhibition, for which the museum’s director, Dr Bernhard Böhler, is personally responsible, to the artist Alfred Hrdlicka on the occasion of his 80th birthday. Hrdlicka is one of Austria’s most notable living artists who, probably more than any other living artist, has devoted himself to the suffering and downtrodden human being and has appealed for “compassion†with the “Passionâ€. He expresses this “compassion†in a most perturbing way. Hrdlicka`s best-known works in this respect are the “Danse macabre of Plötzensee†(Berlin) and his impressive Holocaust Memorial (Memorial Against War and Fascism) in front to the Albertina Gallery in Vienna. It is for this reason that I agreed to an exhibition of his works at the Cathedral Museum, albeit without detailed knowledge of the individual works to be exhibited.
“Alfred Hrdlicka has dealt with biblical subjects all his life, especially with the suffering of Christ. In spite of the fact that he claims to be a communist and an atheist, he nevertheless has a burning interest in the Holy Bible, and has personally admitted that he has a great longing for faith.
“This exhibition does not mean that the museum identifies itself with all of Hrdlicka`s works. In some of them he oversteps the essential threshold of respect for the Sacred. From the point of view of committed Christians, certain of his works must quite clearly be rejected. I obviously would not have agreed to have blasphemous or pornographic works exhibited. I therefore explicitly regret that a work of this kind was exhibited without my knowledge. I ordered the particular work - which committed believers find deeply distressing - to be removed on 20 March.
“Nevertheless, I still hold the opinion that we must welcome the fact that artists who do not share our faith, or are still searching for belief, occupy themselves so intensively with biblical subjects.â€
I appreciate the Cardinal’s apology, and I think it’s a step in the right direction. So the question is - is this enough? Does this fix the problem?
No. Not really. Not by a long shot.
If you recall, the original story mentioned another disturbing image that I have yet to hear the Cardinal condemning, let alone having ordered removed:
“We think Hrdlicka is entitled to represent people in this carnal, drastic way,” [museum director] Bernhard Boehler said in his small museum office, across the street from Vienna’s imposing St. Stephan’s Cathedral.
He said the museum never intended to offend people but that art should be allowed to provoke a debate.
“I don’t see any blasphemy here,” he said, gesturing at a Crucifixion picture showing a soldier simultaneously beating Jesus and holding his genitals. “People can imagine what they want to.”
What’s being done about that? Further, what is being done about the museum director? I don’t really expect the Cardinal to have oversight of every piece of art that goes into the gallery at St. Stephen’s, but I do think it’s entirely reasonable to expect that the Cardinal have a museum director in place who isn’t going to approve this crap and sit there and tell and international newswire that he doesn’t see a problem with it.
Boehler should not only apologize to Austria’s Catholics, but should be shown the door - post-haste. Any and all remaining offensive images should be removed from that gallery. In fact, the whole gallery should be reviewed.
I’ve been to St. Stephen’s, and it’s one of the jewels of Christendom. To have it sullied like this in the name of “art” is inexcusable. To allow these things to go on under his watch is at the very least bad PR on the Cardinal’s part, and at worst, part of an unfortunate pattern.
In the wake of all the scandals that have washed through the Church in the last ten years, there’s really no room for this kind of nonsense.
