I certainly don’t want to get all the Catholics in the world, or even in Charleston, upset.
However, I saw a painting recently in the Charleston room at the end of the long hallway on the first floor in The Gibbes Art Gallery that has all the potential for an uprising parallel to the tumult in Islam over those cartoons in the Danish newspaper.
At first glance it appears to be a painting of the late Pope John Paul II, whom I had the supreme pleasure of seeing up close three times while he was among us.
At second glance it is a portrait that looks like the Piggly Wiggly pig. I don’t know what this school of painting is called and I failed to note the name of the artist, but she/he ought to be happy I can take a joke, and I believe John Paul would have smiled himself.
Of course he might have given a penance of one Our Father and one Hail Mary.
(Published as a Letter to the Editor, The Post & Courier, Charleston SC, Apr.5, 2006)
