Wapsi Square Forum

The Blackfriars Priory School in Adelaide Australia unveiled a new statue last year of St. Dominic giving a young boy a loaf of bread in a questionable pose.

The design has a boy kneeling at the foot of the 12th century Spanish-born saint who is giving him a phallic-shaped loaf of bread, crotch-level. Apparently, the principal at the all boys Catholic school was forced to cover up the statue of the saint and said the oversight was due to only seeing the design in two-dimensions.

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Heck, even the saint didn't look at what he was doing...

Warrl wrote:Heck, even the saint didn't look at what he was doing...

Didn't want to look down on the unemployed?

Do you think I'd be forgiven for laughing at this?

The Church usually tries to quash talk of erect saints.

Several glances, and I still fail to see why folks are upset.

Not like the child was facing him (back to the audience) and taking a bite out of the loaf. Also, I don't know how many phalluses are that wide, nor loaf shaped with angled slits.

Too many idiots that don't know squat about anatomy.

It doesn't have to actually look like a penis to make adults think of a penis.

It's detachable.

People are easily offended, these days.

We have a saying, in French, which might also apply:

Chat échaudé craint l'eau froide
A cat that has been scalded now fears even cold water (cause it can't tell the temp difference without touching, I guess...)

Applying it to this situation, even though the claim is indeed ridiculous, as far as I am concerned, the Catholic Church has suffered plenty enough sexual scandals in the past, that it now wants to avoid anything that even remotely makes one think of those.

Which makes one wonder why they didn't catch it before production... Even in 2D, as the excuse was given, it should have been fairly apparent.

Well, back to the drawing board, I guess. Way to use your funds responsibly...

Alkarii wrote:It doesn't have to actually look like a penis to make adults think of a penis.

It's longer than it's wide.

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Also, it's the saint's pose to a great extent.

lake_wrangler wrote:Applying it to this situation, even though the claim is indeed ridiculous, as far as I am concerned, the Catholic Church has suffered plenty enough sexual scandals in the past, that it now wants to avoid anything that even remotely makes one think of those.

I think that's a big part of it.

Phrased a bit differently: a big part of the scandal situation isn't just that sexual improprieties occurred - it's that the Church willfully "turned a blind eye" to the fact that they were happening. In quite a few cases it was obvious to the Church hierarchy that certain priests were serial abusers, and the Church chose to "look the other way" and pretend that nothing was happening (or even aid-and-abet by concealing reports and transferring the priests to different communities).

So, this kerfluffle with the statue takes on a huge symbolic interpretation: "Once again, they're being blind to what's obvious to everyone else."

It rubs salt in the wounds, and (I think) conveys the message to some people that the Church simply isn't competent to be trusted in matters involving sex and priests.

Or, as they say, "Once is an accident. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action." The Church really needs to work hard to convince its members that it isn't The Enemy in such matters.

At the risk of pissing people off; if three times is enemy action, and if the bad deed doesn’t have to be the same, I’d wager most religions are “The enemy” of at least their own members or the rest of the world... probably both... especially the older ones.

It isn't usually the religion itself, though, just the people who claim to follow it and decide to do things they know they shouldn't.

Or people who completely don’t get the whole “peace and love and goodwill toward men” and start wars or decide to convert by the sword or decide that anyone who doesn’t beleive in their religion too is sub-Human and therefore fair game to kill, rape, or torture...

Large organizations create hierarchies - necessarily in order to get anything done - and when the organization is a religious one that claims authority over people's souls there is a lot of power inherent in even fairly low positions in the hierarchy.

Powerful positions attract the attention of people who are far more interested in the power than in whatever the position is supposed to be about. Some of them will use that power to abuse those under them. This is not a characteristic of religions, it's a characteristic of people - but one that religious organizations cannot be expected to completely avoid.

And hierarchical organizations in general also attract people for whom the preservation and advancement of the organization and their position in it is vastly more important than whatever the organization's official purpose may be. I've heard it said that when the person in charge of the organization never met the founders, it's more than 90% likely that such people dominate the organization. Michael Flynn played heavily on the same theme in his book In the Country of the Blind.

This is THE BIG flaw inherent in having any organization that is solely responsible for its own discipline - whether that is a matter of law or merely of practicality. And it isn't just religious organizations, by any means. In fact, right now much of the US is wondering how to effectively investigate possible wrongdoing within the FBI when nearly-all of the investigators with the necessary expertises work for the FBI.

Also, if you let the people who do the work/set the policy self-select, you will inevitably find you've been selecting the crazies.

Don't let other peoples limitations become your constraints.

Fight the power, man! Like, wow! you know??