Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Religion & Law Blogs -> Religion Clause

Religion & Law

: Religion Clause

Vatican Protests Israeli TV Segment Ridiculing Jesus and Mary

By Howard M. Friedman

Yesterday's Jerusalem Post reports that the Vatican has filed a complaint with Israel's foreign ministry over an offensive satiric segment broadcast last week on Israeli late-night TV. Israel's Channel 10 comedian Lior Shlein aired the piece in response to the Vatican's lifting of the excommunication of Holocaust-denier, Bishop Richard Williamson. (See prior posting.) The offending piece questioned Jesus' virgin birth and ridiculed the claim that Jesus walked on water by saying "he was so fat he was ashamed to leave the house, let alone go to the Sea of Galilee..." The Vatican complained that Mary and Joseph were "ridiculed with blasphemous words and images" that amounted to a "vulgar and offensive act of intolerance toward the religious sentiments of the believers in Christ." Shlein apologized live on Wednesday, Channel 10 has assured the Israeli foreign ministry that the segment will not be aired again, and the station's attorney has sent a letter of apology to the attorney for a Christian group that was offended. This YouTube clip appears to be the satirical segment that generated the Vatican's concern. [Thanks to Joel Katz for the lead.]

Full post as published by Religion Clause on February 22, 2009 (boomark / email).