Saturday, July 19, 2008

Re-enactment self-censored by Catholic diplomatic sensibilities

From The Weekend Australian, July 19, 2008, by Caroline Overington [my emphasis added - SL]:

IT is known as the greatest story ever told, and yesterday it came to Sydney, with passionate young Catholics re-enacting the final hours of Jesus's life...in detail both glorious and gory.

...the broken figure of Christ, played by 27-year-old Alfio Stutio, stumbled barefoot and bleeding through a Sydney production of biblical proportions, over 13 stations of the cross.... tortured, lashed, mocked, stripped, crowned with thorns and then crucified in front of an audience of 100,000 people at Barangaroo, the old Sydney docksite, just as the sun began to set.

...Some 10,000 people watched the stations of the cross in the Domain, while an estimated audience of 500 million tuned in for the telecast.

...Although there are normally 14 stations of the cross, only eight have a scriptural foundation, and in any case, the number and order was changed for World Youth Day, in part to placate Jews, who feared animosity, if the full stations were played out.

WYD co-ordinator Bishop Anthony Fisher said the Catholic Church did not want to anger the Jewish community....

[...no comment, because I don't want to anger the Catholic community - SL]

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