Statement of Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesperson, on Benetton Ad
A decisive protest must be expressed for the completely unacceptable use of the image of the Holy Father, manipulated and instrumentalized in the context of a publicity campaign of a commercial nature. It’s a question of a grave lack of respect for the pope, of an offense to the sentiments of the faithful, [and] of a evident demonstration of how, in the context of publicity, it’s possible to violate elementary rules of respect for persons in order to attract attention with provocations. The Secretariat of State is evaluating the steps to take with the competent authorities in order to guarantee a just protection of respect for the figure of the Holy Father.
Sorry to tell you Fr Lombardi but you did not consult me before you issued this statement. My sentiments have not been offended in any way. In fact I find the image challenging in that it has encouraged me to commit to the Benetton Unhate Campaign. I hope readers of this blog will join me and add their kiss to the Unhate Kiss wall.
If you do a search on Google Images you will find lots of images under "Pope Kissing: The Vatican legal team will be chasing up a lot of sites to pull done every copy of this famous image.
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