A ‘sodomite artist’ named Tom Herck has outraged Catholics by placing a crucified cow in the Saint John the Baptist Church of Kuttekoven, in the Flemish town of Borgloon.

I have no idea whether Herck, pictured above with his provocative artwork, is gay or straight, but check out this headline:



It appears on the Pope Francis The Destroyer blog, which says:

Flemish are no longer interested in “insufferably tedious Masses.”……

The “artist” went through the grueling process of actually nailing the 500 kg corpse of a cow to a cross before covering it with silicone paint: it is the resulting mold that hangs, “crucified” in the center of the church as a sneering mockery of one of the most sacred images of the Catholic faith: that of the crucified God and Saviour of mankind.

In contemporary art, by far the most important part of an opus resides in the “discourse” – or, more appropriately, gibberish – that surrounds it. The installation in Borgloon, Tom Herck is happy to explain, aims to make a stand against modern wastefulness. The cow on the cross, surmounting a basin containing 5,000 litres of milk, is supposed to symbolize industrial breeding and thrown-away food. Visitors are welcomed with beef and cheese appetizers.

The choice of a church supposedly points to wasted architectural space in a time of housing shortage. Herck openly admits he is particularly seeking to attract attention to the “innumerable” churches that remain empty in Flanders on Sundays because, he says, the Flemish are no longer interested in “insufferably tedious Masses.”

No need to sign a petition … I’m sure a few hundred Belgians will pay the price soon enough …

The petition referred to by the blogger is addressed to Bishop Patrick Hoogmartens and says:

We join Catholics in your diocese who are outraged over the display of a ‘crucified cow’ in a consecrated Catholic church.

Please do all that is in your power to protect this most sacred space for the due worship of God, banish this sacrilege, and offer public prayers of reparation.

We pledge to pray for you in your role as shepherd of the Diocese of Hasselt.

And it criticises the local diocese’s lethargy for being “slow to act”.

The local Catholic group Katholiek Forum say the cow is:

A satanic image and a disgusting insult to God and Catholicism.



According to this report, last Sunday, a group of several dozen Catholics came to pray and demonstrate in front of the religious building where occasional Masses are still read, asking for Hoogmartens, to intervene.

The group of faithful Catholics of the not-for-profit association Katholiek Forum who organized the protest on Sunday together with their president, Dries Goethals, mobilised at least one religious and many lay people. They prayed the rosary in front of the old parish church, carrying a banner with the words:

Stop blasphemy and degenerate art: pray for reparation.

Said Goethals: