Strelnikoff Mary of Help of Brezje controversy
Encyclopedia
Rat
Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus...
instead of Jesus was published by a Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
n music group Strelnikoff as the cover of their album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
Bitchcraft.
The album was made in protest of the official views of the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
in Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
and the statements of some of its highest representatives on the subject of abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
.
The first to condemn this depiction was Franc Rode, who was Bishop of Ljubljana at that time. This was followed by general public outcry and expressions of the inappropriateness of the misuse of one of the most known symbols of Slovenian Catholicism
Roman Catholicism in Slovenia
The Roman Catholic Church in Slovenia is part of the worldwide Roman Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope and curia in Rome....
. The State Attorney's Office in Ljubljana received 3,867 public protests and 1,208 requests for indictment
Indictment
An indictment , in the common-law legal system, is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that maintain the concept of felonies, the serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that lack the concept of felonies often use that of an indictable offence—an...
. These were united in one that was at first rebuffed before the District Court in Celje; however the state prosecutor Elizabeta Gyorkos filled a complaint.
The group members also received many phone and mail threats. In August 2003, the indictment was refused by Ljubljana Higher Court as well. In accordance with the Constitution of Slovenia
Constitution of Slovenia
The Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia was adopted by the Slovenian National Assembly on December 23, 1991. The document is divided into ten chapters:# General Provisions# Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms# Economic and Social Relations...
and the Law of Slovenia the court concluded that the authors were "tasteless in their artistic project, however they did not surpass the boundary of allowed at all."
The comment of one of the group members:
External links
- Brezje - the description of the original image in English. Accessed on 18 October 2006.
- Strelnikoff.com - Bitchcraft (The information is partially outdated.)
- Strelnikoff