I WAS SHOCKED WHEN, a few days ago, I read an article in the Catholic Herald describing a "work of art" that had been put on at the South Bank exhibition, and thankfully has now been removed. It was a statue of the Virgin Mary, draped in a condom. The very idea that someone had a mind sick and contorted enough to create such a thing revolted me. What did the artist hope to achieve by such a thing?
Why was he allowed to display such a hideous example of sacrilege to begin with? I suppose it was artistic freedom that allowed him to do it.
Artistic? Can a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary covered in a condom possibly be regarded as art? if it can be, there is something very wroni with the art world today. Freedom?
Yes, this is a free country, and the freedom we enjoy and take for granted, was bought at a very expensive price. Is this what our grandparents and great grandparents laid down their lives for?
Surely there is a boundary between freedom and downright immorality, or does the free society of today allow us to do wrong for the sake of it? I am concerned this thing that has been created abuses, and makes a mockery of, the freedom that the British are so proud of, and will in time turn freedom into a joke.
What is becoming of a society that encourages such appalling blasphemy? By allowing such moral deterioration to take place, society has, in fact, pressed its own self-destruct button, and begun on a slippery, downward spiral to collapse.
I can only conclude by . saying', thank you Mr Alton, for fighting for what is right, and showing true Christian courage.
Fiorella Sultana (aged 15) Warminster, Wiltshire