Zurich, September 12, 2024
orthodoxianewsagency.gr
A Zurich city councilor posted photos of herself shooting at a reproduction of a famous painting of the Theotokos with the Christ Child over the weekend.
Sanija Ameti, 32, quickly removed the photos of the bullet-riddled Son of God, saying she meant no offense, but simply found the poster reproduction “big enough” for target practice.
Yesterday, the Metropolis of Switzerland of the Patriarchate of Constantinople issued a statement, condemning the offensive display:
On September 8 of this year, a city councilor of Zurich appeared on a social media platform shooting, for the sake of target practice and “stress relief,” as she stated, a copy of the famous 14th-century painting Madonna and Child with the Archangel Michael by the Italian painter Tommaso del Mazza.
This impious act, as it offends the faith of Christians through practical disrespect towards our Lord Jesus Christ and the Most Holy Theotokos and hurts the sensitivity of every person of good will, has provoked strong justified reactions from Christian institutional bodies, political formations, and faithful in Switzerland.
His Eminence Metropolitan Maximos of Switzerland, the holy clergy around him, and the Christ-named people of the Holy Metropolis of Switzerland of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, with sorrow and holy indignation, unequivocally disapprove and unreservedly condemn the sacrilege of the markswoman city councilor.
The Holy Metropolis of Switzerland, through the country’s competent institutional body for religious matters, always condemns actions and words that offend (e.g., desecration of monuments, written or verbal abusive references, etc.) the faith of the citizens of the civilized and law-abiding Switzerland.
According to ktvz.com, Ameti has stepped down from her city councilor position.
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