TradCatKnight: Novus Ordo: Archdiocese allows ‘sacrilegious’ semi-nude fashion show in a church - then defends it

The Catholic archdiocese of Brisbane, which is led by Archbishop Mark Coleridge, has defended the staging of a sexually charged, explicitly anti-Christian ballet and fashion show in a Catholic church.

Held in St. Patrick’s Church in Fortitude Valley in October 2016, the event included an erotically suggestive ballet performed in front of the high altar in the sanctuary, during which an almost nude man and woman, wearing flesh-toned undergarments, re-enacted the fall of Adam and Eve, according to images published on the Stumbling Block blog, and others posted by the event organizers themselves.
The aisle of St. Patrick’s, a consecrated church in which Mass is held weekly, became the “catwalk” for a fashion show in which models strutted up to the sanctuary to pose before the high altar and tabernacle.
St. Patrick’s, built in the 19th century, is administered by St. Stephen’s Cathedral, which is under Coleridge’s pastoral care.
In a statement issued on Coleridge’s behalf, archdiocesan spokesperson Adrian Taylor asserted “proper precautions” were taken.
“The altar and the Blessed Sacrament were moved before the event and returned after it ended,” Taylor told LifeSiteNews in an email. “The Archdiocese has received one complaint about this matter, three months after the event.”
The ballet and fashion show was part of the James Street Festival, a “significant community event that takes place within the parish boundary,” Taylor wrote.
“This church is an historic part of the community and the community embraces its presence.”

‘Quelle horreur’ fashion show replete with feminist ideology

But the event was far darker than a community festival might suggest, and arguably a slap at the Church itself, according to a description on Panoptic Press.
The introduction of designer Gail Reid’s “Quelle Horreur” collection under her label Sorronda, the show highlighted her “subversive attraction for contrary or oppositional forces” and “obsession for the angelic, gothic and paranormal.”
The show was rife with feminist ideology and symbolism, as the review explained: “In the Western world, the creation story of the Garden of Eden has underpinned and naturalized the role of women as being subordinate to men for over two and a half thousand years.”
“Most importantly, the role of Eve in this mythological story has cast women as morally frail and open to temptation and has subsequently been used by religious and governmental institutions to stultify and restrict women’s freedom. What horror indeed!!”
St. Patrick’s “monumental gothic structure and stained glass windows lent an ethereal and quasi religious quality to the night’s candlelit proceedings.”
Moreover, the “musical repertoire seemed not to have been chosen for its religiosity but rather for the ironic nature of the titles as these seemed to simultaneously reference the spiritual life whilst undermining the stability or surety of the promise offered by the sanctuary itself.”
For example, “at the moment when ‘Eve’ (dancer Alana Sargeant) bit from the apple the parade commenced and in keeping with the text, the models (being aware of their nudity) enter and are of course clothed” as Madonna’s song Like a Prayer “resonated through the vaulted spaces of St Patrick’s.”

‘A sacrilegious event’

Dr. Peter Kwasniewski, a theology professor at Wyoming Catholic College who writes widely on the liturgy, contends that “this was a sacrilegious event that profaned the sacred space by the explicitly sexual libertinism of the ‘show’.”
He pointed to Canon 1210, which states: “Only those things which serve the exercise or promotion of worship, piety, or religion are permitted in a sacred place; anything not consonant with the holiness of the place is forbidden.”
The Canon allows the ordinary to permit other uses on occasion, provided these are not “not contrary to the holiness of the place,” Kwasniewski told LifeSiteNews in an email.
“Any Catholic of sound judgment would be able to see that this ‘show’ is ‘contrary to the holiness of the place’.”
Dr. Joseph Shaw, Chairman of the Latin Mass Society (England and Wales), echoed this.
“It is clear from the photographs that the event organizers are using the fact that this is a consecrated building, with a traditional altar and crucifix, to create an ambience (complete with candles on the altar) which contrasts with their show in order to titillate or shock their audience,” pointed out Shaw.
“This can only be described as a deliberately sacrilegious act, since it is a mocking use of holy things,” he told LifeSiteNews in an email.
It’s evident St. Patrick’s “has not been deconsecrated, as it would be if it were sold for secular uses,” Shaw pointed out.
The archdiocese’s statement “refers to the removal of the Blessed Sacrament and the ‘altar’, but it would seem this refers to a temporary altar as the historic High Altar of the church can clearly be seen in some of the photographs,” he added.
“This is evidently a stone altar, which would have been solemnly consecrated when first installed; it also has a crucifix upon it.”
Moreover, the “passage of time between the event and people coming to see the photographs and raising their concerns is no defence of what happened,” Shaw observed.
The show was “clearly contrary not only to a proper Catholic instinct about the use of consecrated buildings, but also to the Church’s legislation on the subject, notably Canon 1210 of the Code of Canon Law.”

Call for Coleridge to ‘make reparation to God’

An anonymous source within the Brisbane archdiocese told LifeSiteNews that Coleridge should “make reparation to God, then he should apologize to parishioners” that this scandal was allowed to happen, and then “take steps and be seen to take steps to call those responsible to account to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”