SHORT TAKES : Italian Catholic Establishment Seeks to Bar Madonna’s Tour
Italy’s Catholic Establishment has slammed pop concerts by Italian-American singer Madonna as offensive and started a campaign to stop her European tour from reaching Italy.
The Catholic news agency SIR, which reflects opinions of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, hit out at Madonna’s use of crucifixes and sacred symbols in concerts and videos.
“Her new show, with the symbols it uses and the values it expresses, is an offense to good taste,” it said Wednesday.
Madonna, 29, whose grandparents were born in Italy and who was brought up a Catholic, is due to play three concerts in Rome and Turin next week.
The Catholic lobby group Famiglia Domani (The Family Tomorrow) said it had written to the cardinal of Rome, Ugo Poletti, asking him to “stop this shameful spectacle taking place in Rome--a city dear to millions of Catholics.”
Famiglia Domani last year succeeded in stopping the broadcast on Italian state television of Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” video by threatening to bring a court action for blasphemy.
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