I saw this with a measure of horror, though not of surprise, given the Jesuit source and subject…
Dear friends: I’m so happy to share with you this new icon by Robert Lentz, OFM, the great iconographer (with his permission) of two of great prophets of our time: Philip Berrigan and Daniel Berrigan, SJ. https://t.co/UAf9xsyKuv pic.twitter.com/gzQ4znHTDU
— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) January 7, 2018
What’s horrible about this?
First, it’s cliche. These faux icons of edgy social justice figures are getting tiresome.
Next, the Berrigans? Really?
Thirdly, it is forbidden to create a public cult of veneration for figures who haven’t been officially recognized by the Church. The veto explicitly says that they cannot be portrayed with a “nimbus”, the halo-like elements around their heads.
His decidedly un-Catholic attitude (essentially, “I don’t care” – no wonder a Jesuit likes him) is explained by himself HERE
This Franciscan goof has also made cliche faux-icons of Cesar Chavez, Albert Einstein, homosexualist activist Harvey Milk, Ghandi, Martin Luther King. To be fair, he has also made them of true saints. I don’t object to his depictions of Christ as an Apache or Mary as a Navajo: I have depictions of both in Chinese and Japanese idiom, and just go to a museum and look at paintings of holy figures in garb contemporary for the painters and patrons.
But these others are wrong and verge on blasphemy.
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