The new statue of the Madonna at Santa Teresa di Gallura is an "abstract of Mary's form" ??
— Dewie (@judgedewie.bsky.social) September 9, 2025 at 4:41 AM
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Cue loads of men wandering around the area, frantically trying and failing to find it.
— Mike Collins (@m1kecollins.bsky.social) September 9, 2025 at 4:46 AM
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Mary has always been posed specifically the way she has throughout all of history to illustrate a vulva. So this statue is actually just making obvious a 2000 year old tradition.
— God Speed You! Molly Maguire (@abrightgreencity.bsky.social) September 9, 2025 at 11:32 AM
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Beyond the obvious lols, I think it's (a) deliberate (b) beautiful (c) clever and (d) a religious celebration of womanhood and/or brilliant trolling of patriarchal male religious figures.
This is an interesting short read I've found www.femcatholic.com/post/celebra…— Dewie (@judgedewie.bsky.social) September 9, 2025 at 10:55 AM
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War for Ukraine Day 1,298: Putin’s Polish Gambit
J. Arthur Crank
Well, now that you mention it…
mrmoshpotato
@J. Arthur Crank: What? I don’t understand. What more of women’s bodies were you expecting to be rightfully presented in art form? //s
Balconesfault
Just occured to me after reading the linked article that Jesus popped his mother’s cherry.
NotMax
@Balconesfault
Not to mention being the most prolific bigamist in creation, since every nun is a “bride of Christ.”
//
frosty
@Balconesfault: LOL, this, along with the whole idea of AL’s post is totally obvious. Oblivious me never noticed it though!
@NotMax: This too.
Captain C
@Balconesfault:
This would make a good song title for a punk tune, maybe a surf punk tune in particular.
Jager
When I was 16, I was given a detailed and intimate anatomy lesson by my 15-year-old Catholic neighbor girl. Whenever she babysat my younger sisters, I always came home early. She was a blessing.
Splitting Image
The people most offended by the statue will be the exact same people who despise the Catholic church both for its iconography (“graven images”) in general and the worship of Mary in particular.
Anne Laurie
Believe me, this was a common dirty joke when I was attending an all-girl parochial high school… and that was fifty years ago.
(The earnest rebuttal, by mostly celibate Catholic theologians, is that Christ’s birth, like his conception, was *miraculous*, and therefore did not impinge upon his Virgin Mother’s status. Which theory impressed snotty working-class teenagers every bit as much as it had impressed peasants for the preceding many centuries… )
NotMax
@Anne Laurie
Anyone ever ask what became of the Holy Placenta? Did Joseph and the three kings eat it with fava beans and a nice Chianti?
:)
Melancholy Jaques
Got the new COVID & the new flu vaccines yesterday. The last 36 hours have been the sickest I’ve felt in years. Pain all over, headache, earache, all night long shivering like I’m out in the freezing cold, I mean shivering so much it woke me up. Very surprised since with all these vaccines I’ve had over the last five years, the only reaction I had before was mild soreness at the injection site. I’m getting the new pneumonia vaccine in November. I will make sure I have no plans for the next day or two.
NotMax
@Melancholy Jaques
“Oh you wanted the anti-flu shot?” :)
Seriously though, feel better fast.
prostratedragon
Dr. Clark’s PhD is in microbiology.
eclare
@Melancholy Jaques:
Oh no! I am scheduled to get those vaccines on Tuesday, now I’m worried.
I got the pneumonia vaccine a few weeks ago with no side effects. I hope the same for you.
Jay
@prostratedragon:
So she is an expert on Dolt47’s mushroom problem.
Asparagus Aspersions
I’ve been laughing for most of my metro ride at the first reply to the sculpture – thanks for that. Nice to start the work week that way
prostratedragon
Rusty
For a seminary class we read a book that asked did Mary consent to pregnancy? Now that’s an interesting question to discuss! Why not Mary represented as vaginal? She isn’t the passive mother figure so often portrayed, but is a radical prophet. In the Magnificat from Luke she says,
“He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.”
A teenager who had the autonomy to decided on her own fertility and pregnancy, and to call for the downfall of the proud, the rich and the rulers of nations. That is bad ass. I now imagine the Magnificat spoken in a street-wise teenage voice, or sung in hip-hop.
Betty Cracker
I am not now nor have I ever been a member of the Catholic Church, but go Pope!
Betty Cracker
I am not now nor have I ever been a member of the Catholic Church, but go Pope!
Baud
@prostratedragon:
Awesome.
@Betty Cracker:
Nice.
satby
@Betty Cracker: Also this:
Baud
Forbidden Stromboli.
satby
Haven’t been a practicing Catholic for 58 years, but I am gratified to see the social justice theology is again dominant in the Church due to this and the last Pope.
satby
@Baud: wow, they’re lucky they outran it.
Baud
@satby:
I’m worried they’re failing to emphasize Jesus’s extensive teachings on gays and abortion.
satby
@Baud: Pope Leo also met with the leading religious advocate in the US on September 1. Widely interpreted as an approval of Father Martin’s ministry.
Chicago has a lot to be proud of in her hometown guys. (You knew I’d have to plug my city 😉)
p.a.
@satby: Doesn’t take them too long to make the decision and puke it out publicly on pro-choice Catholics politicians though, does it?
Raised Catholic? Why yes, yes I was.
satby
@p.a.: a lot of the resistance to modernizing the American church came from the old guard bishops and Cardinals ordained pre-Francis. He removed one bishop and sanctioned the most vocal one. And he elevated to bishop more liberal priest, which ultimately led to them choosing Leo.
And also led to breakaway sects of Trad Catholics like the one Justice Coathanger Bitch belongs to.
satby
And speaking of hometown guys, Pritzker has been pretty effective at the resistance to the felon:
Illinois’s J.B. Pritzker delivers more with less, making him arguably the most effective resistance governor. His state joins multistate lawsuits weekly, the highest participation rate nationally. He already flipped multiple House seats through aggressive redistricting in 2021, achieving what Newsom only now reactively attempts with Proposition 50. On September 12, 2025, he created a parallel vaccine distribution system via executive order. He shares legal strategies through Governors Safeguarding Democracy, turning his organization into an actual resistance tool that coordinates litigation across 20 states. A federal judge dismissed him from DOJ’s sanctuary lawsuit in July 2025. He fought and won.
Baud
@satby:
Yeah, but is he a tiktok star?
Soapdish
I don’t see it….
lowtechcyclist
@satby:
That’s funny, because there’s a longstanding name for breakaway sects from the Roman Catholic Church.
We’re called Protestants.
p.a.
Bonfire kindling. Fixt😉
Professor Bigfoot
@satby: The Great Khan is a bad man (in the Muhammad Ali sense of being “a bad man”) and he’s also a great guy.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
There’s gotta be a Georgia O’Keefe joke in there somewhere but I can’t find it right now, probably because I’m a guy.
lowtechcyclist
@Professor Bigfoot:
He’s not just talking, he’s doing the work.
Professor Bigfoot
@lowtechcyclist: Just like Muhammad Ali.
”It ain’t bragging if you can bring it.”
lowtechcyclist
@NotMax:
I thought they were a ‘bride of Christ’ in the sense that the Church collectively is the ‘bride of Christ.’
Of course that means all us male Christians are really either gay or transitioning to female, I’m not sure which ;-)
lowtechcyclist
@Professor Bigfoot:
Tru dat!
pluky
@Balconesfault: Not according to orthodox theology. “Virgo perpetua” is a Marian epithet. The mental gymnastics to support this I’ll leave as an exercise for the reader.
Matt McIrvin
@Balconesfault: Oh, old-timey Catholic theologians had a whooooole bunch of theory about that.
I recall a painting of, I think, the Annunciation from, I think, the 16th or 17th century that showed a beam of light passing through a glass window up in the corner, and the museum caption explained that a viewer of the time would have understood this as symbolizing the miraculous passage of baby Jesus through the requisite area like light passing through glass.
mrmoshpotato
@Betty Cracker:
@satby: I am a lapsed Catholic, and Da Pope is a White Sox fan, but God bless him. 😁
montanareddog
@lowtechcyclist: There are churches which consider themselves Catholic but do not accept the primacy of Rome. These churches tend to have doctrines very close to traditional Roman Catholicism: Old Catholic Church
And parts of the Anglican communion are adjacent enough* that it is relatively easy for their priests to convert to Rome, even the married ones: Ordinariate
tldr: not all breakaways are Protestant
*Henry VIII’s schism was political, not doctrinal
Matt McIrvin
@satby: The current movement in the Catholic Church, and the fact that Francis was apparently NOT just a blip between hardcore reactionary Popes going with the general pro-tyranny flow of global politics, is absolutely astonishing to me right now. Could be better obviously, and I know a lot of American bishops are not happy with all this. But it’s unexpected to me.
JML
@Matt McIrvin: American Bishops also furious that they are not considered to be the driving force in global Catholicism…
Gloria DryGarden
@Captain C: I’d like it as a catchy folk tune. Joni, or Joan Baez.
dnfree
@montanareddog: My brother, raised and baptized a Methodist, had to be re-baptized by the Episcopalians to be married in their church. If he had been a Catholic, his baptism would have been accepted. This was 40 years ago, so I don’t know if this has changed.
A daughter was married in the Greek Orthodox Church, and they accepted her United Church of Christ baptism.
Betty
@satby: That archconservative attitude is the ongoing legacy of Pope John Paul II who went out of way to appoint very conservative leaders. Popes Francis and Leo are working to correct that. I saw clips of the amazing show for artists just held at the Vatican. Great speech from Pharrel Williams about grace, light and love.
Betty
@dnfree: It’s my understanding that the Catholic Church doctrine is that you can on!y be baptized once.
Miss Bianca
@Matt McIrvin: That’s the explanation I received, way back in the day.
WTFGhost
@Anne Laurie: Technically speaking, loss of hymen and loss of virginity are also two completely different ideas, so, that Jesus “popped her cherry”/broke her hymen, I’d assume quite conclusively, is both true, and irrelevant. The key miracle was “no human seed made him; he came from God.”
That said, if you’re speaking to uneducated peasants, who know hymens, not religious purity, you might want to simplify things.
RevRick
@Betty: In every church that baptizes infants, the understanding is that this is a means of grace*. In other words, it’s what God does to, for, and through us. Grace goes before any human response.
Anabaptist traditions like the Mennonites and other churches like the Southern Baptists, which baptize adults, demand a human decision to “accept Jesus”, or some such formulation.
*For most Protestants, there is only one other means of grace: Holy Communion, while the Roman Catholic Church adds five more: Confession/Penance, Confirmation, Ordination, Marriage, and Anointing of the Dying/Last Rites.
RevRick
@dnfree: I find this requirement to be a bit hinky, since Episcopalians tend to be quite loose doctrinally and would recognize the baptisms of other churches, even those it wasn’t in full communion with. What’s even stranger is that Methodism is a break off from the Anglican Church. And Holiness and Pentecostal churches are break offs from Methodism.