Madonna angers religious leaders with cross stunt

ROME – Madonna’s plans to crucify herself on a cross during a Sunday concert have drawn fire from religious leaders.

The 47-year-old pop diva wears a crown of thorns and sings while hanging from a cross on her “Confessions” world tour.

The prospect of the scene being repeated at the concert in Rome’s Olympic stadium, some two miles from the Vatican, prompted Catholic officials to denounce the act as a publicity stunt in bad taste.

“To crucify yourself in the city of the pope and the martyrs is an act of open hostility,” Cardinal Ersilio Tonini was quoted as saying in the La Stampa daily Wednesday. “It’s a scandal created on purpose by astute merchants to attract publicity.”

Muslim and Jewish leaders also criticized the concert stunt.

“It’s not the first time Madonna stages such an act. We deplore it, we feel it is an act of bad taste,” said Mario Scialoja, president of the Muslim World League in Italy.

Associated Press