True Kitsch is Catholic Kitsch!
Brett Webb-Mitchell
July 1, 1997
On the appropriateness of images of the pope and saints of the church, be it a picture in a book or a statue, theologian John Calvin was quite clear: "The pictures of statues that they (Roman Catholics) dedicate to saints—what are they but examples of the most abandoned lust and obscenity? If anyone wished to model himself after them, he would be fit for the lash. Indeed, brothels show harlots clad more virtuously and modestly than the churches show those objects which they wish to be thought images of virgins" (Institutes of the Christian Religion, Vol. 1, p. 106).
But what would John Calvin have thought of such a thing as a pope on a rope?
This question first crossed my mind on the sidewalks of New York City during
Pope John Paul II's latest foray to America. Walking over to St. Patrick's Cathedral, along with hundreds of other people waiting to see if he would come out to the crowd latter eating lunch with the blessed, "lucky" few, I was surprised to find what was on sale in little booths along the sidewalks. At the "unofficial booths," there he was, swaying in the breeze, a soap on the end of a string, your basic "pope on a rope!"
This was only the beginning. There were packs of playing cards with John Paul's face laminated on the back. Think of it: Gin rummy, or, better yet, poker, with the Pope in hand! What a blessing not in disguise. And at the official booths for the Pope's visit, meaning those booths sanctioned by the Vatican or local diocese, one of the first things that caught my eye were stacks of phone cards with the Pope's face on them; they were selling quite briskly. (Every time you make a phone call, there's the Pope, so glad to see you. Pretty neat way of evangelizing the masses.) There were plastic ...
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