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AMERICA-STATUE (SECOND UPDATE) Dec-28-2005 (1,070 words) xxxn
Respected Italian writer criticizes America magazine for ad blunder
By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service
ROME (CNS) -- Controversy over an advertisement in a U.S. Jesuit-run magazine made the front page of a major Italian newspaper in an article written by a highly respected Italian Catholic author and commentator.
Vittorio Messori, who has co-authored books with Popes Benedict XVI and John Paul II, severely criticized an America magazine ad that offered for sale a small statue of Mary covered in a condom.
The magazine said the ad, published in its Dec. 5 issue, was accepted by mistake. It has apologized to its readers for failing to screen the ad in advance.
Messori's commentary, published in Corriere della Sera Dec. 22, was unusual in several respects. It gave the impression that the magazine itself was offering the statue for sale, it did not mention America's explanation and apology, and it used the ad to launch a verbal attack on the church in the United States.
"All of this in a church like the American church, reduced to economic bankruptcy and the unanimous abomination of a clergy that too often, it seems, likes to fondle seminarians' genitalia," he wrote.
Jesuit Father Jose M. de Vera, spokesman for the Jesuits in Rome, said Messori apparently failed to realize that America had inadvertently published the ad and had apologized for the error.
Father de Vera said Messori generally has high credibility in the church, and because of that his commentary may have a "deep impact in the official circles in the Vatican," even if based on incomplete information.
Father de Vera said he was sending Messori the explanation given by America, in the hope that Messori would add clarification to his article.
Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, head of Vatican Radio and the CTV, said he was astonished by Messori's attack on the editors of America.
In a letter published Dec. 23 by the same Italian newspaper that ran Messori's commentary, Father Lombardi said the Jesuit editors are "good men of culture" who failed to properly screen one ad out of "the hundreds" that get published in the magazine's 41 issues each year.
The America editors had fallen into "a booby trap" set by the advertiser "who wanted to ridicule them and Marian devotion," wrote Father Lombardi.
The ad, which ran on page 36 of the 38-page issue, offered what the advertiser called a "unique contemporary religious artwork" for $300 by an art student in Great Britain.
In the ad, the artist described the piece, titled "Extra Virgin," as being an eight-and-a-half-inch statue of the Virgin Mary wearing "a delicate veil of latex." The ad included a small color photograph of the statue, which on closer examination is enveloped from head to toe in a transparent condom.
In mid-December America's editor in chief, Jesuit Father Drew Christiansen, and the Jesuit's provincial superior, Father Gerald J. Chojnacki, sent individual apologies to those who contacted the magazine about the objectionable advertisement.
The magazine then published two different apologies in its Dec. 19-26 and Jan. 2-9 issues.
"We were embarrassed to have readers call our attention to the offensive advertisement that escaped our unknowing eyes," it said. "We have taken several steps to tighten our advance review of advertising and express our outrage to the artist."
The advertiser, Steve Rosenthal, identified himself as a "sculptural artist" and listed an e-mail address where he could be contacted. America provided Catholic News Service with a copy of an e-mail exchange between Rosenthal and an America subscriber who had contacted Rosenthal immediately after the ad appeared to ask why he had placed the ad.
In his response to the subscriber, Rosenthal said his ad had been turned down by "many a UK (United Kingdom) publication" and he wanted a chance "to illicit (sic) a strong response or reaction to my work by believers of the Catholic faith."
He said he hoped it would "prompt readers to question ... the scientific impossibility to the authenticity of the said Virgin Mary actually being a virgin -- thus calling the entire foundation of the religion into question."
He also said he hoped the work would lead to questioning the church's "tandem demonization of the act of impregnation by sexual activity, thereby creating the notion that woman can be only either virgin or whore." Mary is usually depicted in white and blue garments, symbolizing purity, but her garments in the ad appear bright red.
In the e-mail Rosenthal also sharply criticized Catholic teaching against artificial contraception, saying it was responsible for "hundreds of thousands" of deaths from HIV.
Rosenthal said he sought to place the ad "without malice."
In their disclaimer, America editors said his comments to the subscriber showed "that he had intended his art as an assault on Catholic faith and devotion."
In an e-mail to CNS Dec. 28 Rosenthal challenged the editors' statement, saying, "How can a question amount to an assault?"
"I primarily wanted to facilitate a discourse to occur amongst members of the Catholic faith regarding the (church's) nonadvocation of condoms," he wrote.
Controversy over the ad reached fever pitch after a number of Catholic blogs and Web sites reproduced the advertisement.
One Catholic Web site's blog urged its readers to send complaints to Vatican officials.
Father Christiansen said in a letter to America readers that the problem with the ad "was not evident in the black-and-white proofs we have used to check the final copy." The ad's photo appears in color in the issue.
Fathers Christiansen and Chojnacki wrote that the magazine has now "put procedures in place" that will screen prospective advertisements more thoroughly so as to better "detect such trickery" in the future.
Jesuit Brother Francis W. Turnbull, America's assistant editor, told CNS Dec. 22 that in addition to establishing stricter screening procedures overall in its advertising department, from now on the magazine will check color proofs of all color ads before publication.
The U.S. Jesuit-run magazine came under fire earlier this year when its editor in chief, Jesuit Father Thomas Reese, resigned after repeated complaints from then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, who objected to the magazine's treatment of sensitive church issues.
Messori and Pope John Paul co-authored the 1994 book, "Crossing the Threshold of Hope." In 1985, Messori authored a book-length interview with then-Cardinal Ratzinger, titled "The Ratzinger Report: An Exclusive Interview on the State of the Catholic Church."
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Contributing to this story was Jerry Filteau in Washington.
END
Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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