c. 2006 Religion News Service
VATICAN CITY _ Pop singer Madonna has yet to take the stage, but she is already attracting a horde of critics in the heart of Roman Catholicism. The offense: singing while suspended, Christ-like, from a mirrored disco-style crucifix, wearing a crown of thorns.
That is the scene Catholic officials are dreading when Madonna performs the Roman leg of her “Confessions” world tour Sunday (Aug. 6), less than a mile and a half from the hallowed grounds of St. Peter’s Basilica.
Italian newspapers are already brimming with headlines threatening to “excommunicate” the Material Girl for her “blasphemous” stagecraft.
“To crucify yourself in the city of the pope and the martyrs is an act of open hostility,” Italian Cardinal Ersilio Tonini, 92, told Turin’s La Stampa daily Wednesday. Tonini went on to accuse the singer of promoting “the will to desecrate, anticlericalism of the worst taste and, above all, an insult to Christ.”
Bishop Velasio De Paolis, the No. 2 official in the Vatican Supreme Court, compared the signer to “witches and Satanists who bow to fabricated idols and black Masses,” according to La Stampa.
The upcoming concert isn’t the first time Madonna has locked horns with churchmen over her provocative use of Christian imagery. During a 1984 tour of Italy, Madonna performed the hit song “Papa Don’t Preach” with a large portrait of the late Pope John Paul II projected on a screen behind her. In Italian, the world “papa” means “pope.”
Her 1989 video “Like a Prayer” outraged church officials with its Catholic imagery, burning crosses and kissing a black Jesus. The controversy prompted Pepsi to cancel a $5 million ad campaign featuring the video.
When Madonna returned to Italy in 1990 for her Blond Ambition Tour, John Paul urged Italians to boycott the event, forcing her to cancel two shows due to poor ticket sales.
Not all of Italy is dreading Madonna’s Rome performance, her first in more than 16 years. Rome’s top dance venue Gay Village has dedicated a weeklong tribute to the singer. The Milan daily Corriere della Sera reported Friday that Madonna received numerous invitations to the vacation homes of Italy’s top designers, including Giorgio Armani and Dolce & Gabbana.
Tickets to her Sunday concert, meanwhile, have sold out. Vendor Ticket One reported Thursday that Rome’s Olympic Stadium has been scrambling to expand its 70,000-seat capacity to accommodate Madonna’s massive following.
The news of Madonna’s enduring popularity has been a bitter pill for some prelates. Bishop Luigi Negri of the San Marino-Montefeltro diocese in Northern Italy issued a warning to ticket buyers, telling Rome’s Il Giornale newspaper that anyone who attends the concert is “sowing a seed of adoration for the God of nothing.”
Liz Rosenberg, Madonna’s New York-based publicist, did not return calls and e-mails Friday, but told the New York Daily News, “I think the pope would enjoy the show and would applaud her performance.
“He has an open invitation to see for himself the eloquence and beauty that Madonna expresses for humanity while performing her poignant song `Live to Tell.”’
KRE/PH END MEICHTRY
