On Wednesday, there will be a rally outside the Brooklyn Museum of Art to protest the “Sensation” exhibition. The rally is being sponsored by Msgr. Peter Finn, Co-Vicar, Staten Island, and the Catholic League. It begins at noon. Several local elected officials will address the crowd.
Catholic League president William Donohue shed further light on the need for the rally:
“December 8 is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, a Holy Day of Obligation in the Catholic Church. It is appropriate, therefore, that Christians come together to register their outrage at the disgraceful portrait by Chris Ofili, ‘The Holy Virgin Mary.’
“By throwing elephant dung on Our Blessed Mother, and surrounding the painting with pornographic pictures, Ofi1i is promoting hate speech. Worse, the directors of the museum have willfully conspired with Charles Saatchi, the owner of the art, to sponsor this trash at the taxpayer’s expense.
“It is only right that Christians protest this exhibition on a day that honors Our Blessed Mother. We intend to send an unmistakable message to the Brooklyn Museum of Art that there is no legitimate role for publicly-funded hate speech in America.”
