Seeking to raise money for their Roman Catholic youth group on the Spanish tourist destination island of Mallorca, members came up with a risque idea: Pose nearly nude for a calendar recreating scenes from the Passion of Christ.
The group has almost sold out of the 10 euro (US$13) calendars for this year and is considering another print run because of high demand.
However, Mallorca’s bishop, Jesus Murgui, is blasting the effort as showing disrespect for the most important Catholic holiday.
“The calendar trivializes Easter,” the bishop’s office said in a statement e-mailed to reporters on Friday. “We regret that the religious feelings of Catholics on this island have not been taken into account and that Christian symbols should not have been shown due respect.”
Members of the Davallament Catholic group of young adults that gives Sunday school classes say the sheer popularity of the calendar shows they have the public’s support. They paid 1,500 euros to have 300 calendars printed and have almost sold out for a profit of 1,500 euros that will be used to buy material for their work aimed at educating young Catholics and keeping them in the fold.
The calendar features black and white shots of young men and women of Sant Joan, population 2,000, recreating images of the Roman era when Christianity was born.
Images taken in rustic settings include nearly naked gladiators fighting with spears and Roman centurions with their buttocks visible escorting three imprisoned Christians wearing skimpy loin cloths while carrying a rustic wooden cross.
Another scene shot for the calendar shows 12 naked male models from the town lined up in a row, smiling and holding classic Roman plumed helmets in front of their private parts.
Pere Mestre, a 19-year-old shoe repairman and member of the youth group, said all of the models were between 18 and 28 years old. They included a carpenter, farm workers and a pilot.
He was somewhat dumbfounded by the negative reaction from Mallorca’s top Catholic, but said he and other members “are happy that our calendar is raising money for our association, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary.”
The youth group’s leader, Pep Mas, said he understood the criticism of the calendar, but said it fulfilled a need by raising funds and that the photographs were artistic.
“We accept criticism and opinions, but all of the shots are respectable,” Mas told the Ultima Hora newspaper.
Sant Joan Mayor Joan Magro also defended the calendar, -telling Antena3 television channel that the photographer and the models did a good job.
“There are some good photographs, they are artistic and very well done,” he was quoted as saying.
A woman who answered the phone at Magro’s office on Friday said he would not be available for further comment.
The controversy over the calendar came just a week after female police officers in Spain’s coastal mainland area of Lleida near Mallorca released a calendar of themselves scantily dressed in cat burglar outfits.
It was a Christmas gift to their male colleagues. None of the women posed in uniform, which is illegal in Spain. However, the success of their calendar prompted the female officers to think about selling copies to raise money for charity, Spain’s El Periodico newspaper said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not