NEW YORK CITY (LifeSiteNews) — The Church of St. Francis Xavier in Manhattan is hosting a sacrilegious “iconography” exhibit created by Nicholas Leeper, a Jesuit known for his blasphemous “art,” that features provocative depictions of Our Lord, Our Lady, and other saints in the style of modern “pop art” after the Archdiocese of New York had canceled the exhibit from being displayed on archdiocesan property.
Leeper’s exhibit, titled “Twilight of the Idols,” centers around his “Madonna and Child (Tomatokos)” “icon,” which sacrilegiously mimics a 1950s Campbell’s soup advertisement. Our Blessed Mother, depicted as a housewife, holds a can of tomato soup in her hand which represents the infant Jesus. The exhibit opened May 9 and will remain on display through May 29. Featuring an additional 13 blasphemous “icons,” the exhibit was originally set to be displayed at the Archdiocese of New York’s Sheen Center for Thought and Culture but was abruptly canceled.
“The Church of St. Francis Xavier and Xavier High School are proud to provide a home for the exhibition in support of Leeper and the way his work provokes, examines, and seeks to deepen the relationship between faith, culture, and a life of prayer,” an announcement on the parish website stated.
“The (Madonna and Child) work is one of 14 paintings that place the visual language of advertising and Pop Art within the structure of Byzantine iconography,” the release continued. “Advertisements replace conventional depictions of the saints, inviting reflection on the Jesuit maxim to ‘find God in all things,’ even in our consumer culture.”
Father Kenneth Boller, the pastor of St. Francis Xavier who approved the exhibit at the parish, told the National Catholic Reporter that he “appreciates” Leeper’s works.
“I appreciate his work and the perspective he has on it to present our own Catholic belief that the Holy Family and the various saints were ordinary human beings touched by the divine,” the Jesuit said. “And so using the pop art medium to depict it is a way to get you to rethink what you see.”
While it is true that the faithful are meant to “find God in all things,” Christian icons are meant to serve as “windows into heaven” and lift the mind towards God rather than earthly things.
Some of Leeper’s other “icons” in the exhibit include “Madonna and Child (purest protection),” which shows a topless woman depicting the Blessed Virgin Mary holding a baby representing Our Lord, along with baby powder. Another work, “The Visitation,” depicts two women representing Our Lady and her cousin St. Elizabeth as characters in a cigarette ad.
Another “icon,” “Madonna del Parto (Once Upon a Time … in Bethlehem),” portrays a pregnant Virgin Mary modeled after the late actress and “sex symbol” Sharon Tate. In Leeper’s “Santa Abraham” piece, Abraham is depicted as Santa Claus from Coca-Cola ads.
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According to Leepers, his sacrilegious exhibit had been scheduled to be displayed at the Sheen Center but was canceled by the Archdiocese of New York just two weeks before it would have opened after they received phone calls and emails expressing concerns. The exhibit quickly found a new venue at St. Francis Xavier Church, which is also Leeper’s residence, and it is now on display in the St. Mary chapel.
St. Francis Xavier notably has “Gay Catholic,” “Catholic Lesbian,” and “sex migrant” ministries. The parish also hosts yoga and a “zen meditation” group.
LifeSiteNews reached out to St. Francis Xavier Church and the Archdiocese of New York but did not receive a response from either by publication time.
Contact information for respectful communication:
Father Kevin Boller
Phone: 212-627-2100, x 204
Email: [email protected]
Archdiocese of New York
Phone: 212-371-1000
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