Speaking of the power of the blog, it looks like Fr. Michael Parise has removed his nude-man artwork from the web site of his parish, St. Andrew in Billerica. (Although they missed at least one link from an interior page; I’ll credit that to an oversight rather than malice.)
That’s a good start, although Parise’s personal web site containing the same art is still available. That’s okay by me in general. Although I don’t think nude art itself is objectionable (as someone pointed out, the Vatican museums are full of nude art), Parise’s “Man Emerging” series veered very close to inappropriateness and having that artwork on a parish web site crossed the line. Combine that with the advice columns he posted on the topic of homosexuality and other clues we found online and it’s difficult to argue that there is an innocent explanation for all this.
Let’s hope this isn’t just a case of the problem being swept under the rug, dealing with the obvious, public face of the issue while failing to deal with the underlying problem.
Dom,
You’re right in that there is nothing wrong with most artistic nudes. However the thought of a priest painting nudes just gives me the willies. Maybe it’s a product of our modern times, or maybe it’s just because it should give me the willies, I don’t know. It’s also the fact that according to the url you linked to, some of his work was posted on a site for gay artists, when I went there, there was no work posted there, but his profile was up. And if that shouldn’t send up a red flag, I don’t know what should.
Well… yes, I thought that’s what I was saying.
The bishop needs to put the stop on this. There are three reasons.
1) the likely scandal caused. The only reason it was picked up here (and elsewhere) is the scandal.
2) this priest is likely to become the victim of an accusation he might be hard pressed to refute. Could be expensive. And dumb. Where, oh where, is common sense in all this???
3) this priest may be advertising his desires and fascinations. Looking for company???
Enough said.
SWINE