BERLIN — A efficiency inside a Catholic cathedral in Germany earlier this month that featured uncooked, plucked chickens wrapped in diapers onstage — and the nation’s president and the native archbishop within the viewers — has prompted the church and municipal leaders to apologize that the present “harm spiritual emotions.”
The present, “Westphalia Facet Story,” was a part of a Could 15 celebration to mark the 1,250th anniversary of Westphalia, a area in northwestern Germany.
Video footage reveals one girl and two shirtless males singing “Fleisch ist Fleisch” (“Meat is meat”) — apparently spoofing Austrian band Opus’ 1984 pop tune “Stay is Life” — with scythes and dancing with the useless chickens on a stage in entrance of Paderborn Cathedral’s altar.
Efficiency firm bodytalk stated in a press release Friday that the present featured work-in-progress excerpts from “Westphalia Facet Story” — which references the American musical “West Facet Story.”
The completed present, which is able to premiere in September, is meant to be a part of the 1,250th anniversary’s cultural programming.
“It was not meant to be a spoof in any respect,” bodytalk cofounder Rolf Baumgart stated in an e mail to The Related Press. “As Westphalia is a rural dominated area with a turbulent historical past our analysis was targeted on that.”
The spectacle additionally prompted an internet petition — signed by greater than 22,000 individuals by Friday afternoon — that asks Paderborn Archbishop Udo Bentz for a private apology, in addition to penance. The signers additionally need him to reconsecrate the cathedral after it was “desecrated by this efficiency.”
In a press release posted on-line to the cathedral’s web site greater than per week after the efficiency, the Regional Affiliation of Westphalia-Lippe and the church’s management stated that the content material of the efficiency wasn’t identified to the organizers or the venue.
The cathedral, the assertion stated, is usually host to cultural occasions and has begun an inner evaluation. Additionally they promised to extra fastidiously vet proposed occasions sooner or later.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s workplace did not instantly return a request for touch upon Friday.
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Philipp Jenne contributed to this report from Vienna.